Twenty to 50 percent of the planet's species would be driven to extinction.
Within any local area, one species may generally be driven to extinction by the other.
Organisms that do not have the genetic capacity to adapt to rapid climatic changes will be forced to move, or will be driven to extinction, climate scientists say.
If something is not done to stop mining and poaching, the report said that the eastern lowland gorilla "will become the first great ape to be driven to extinction -- a victim of war, human greed and high technology".
Climate change may cause some nature reserves to lose valuable species (some butterflies, like many insects, will be driven to extinction in reserves that become drought-stricken), but they will retain crucial features, such as their soil structure.
More than half of all frogs, toads and newts living in Europe could be driven to extinction within 40 years as climate change, diseases and habitat destruction take their toll, scientists warned last night.
Long before they are cataloged, thousands of plant and animal species are likely to be driven to extinction as forests, wetlands, mountain slopes and other habitats are exploited or harmed by climate change.
The scientists concluded that, while the bears were not likely to be driven to extinction, they would be largely relegated to the Arctic archipelago of Canada and spots off the northern Greenland coast, where summer sea ice tends to persist even in warm summers like this one, a shrinking that could be enough to reduce the bear population by two-thirds.
