24 Dec 2009 09:12:05

New climate change measurement unveiled

US scientists have claimed that they have found a new way to measure the planet's rate of climate change.

According to the California-based researchers, they can determine the impact of global warming using kilometres per year, reports Time magazine.

They explained that as the mean global temperature rises, Earth's habitable climatic zones will start to shift away from the equator and towards the poles.

The planet's movement will mean that many species of both plants and animals will have to find new habitats in order to survive but the scientists warned that not all of them will be able to keep up with the pace of change.

"For some species on the brink of extinction, physically moving them might be our only option but setting aside connected, heterogeneous landscapes that allow natural movement will almost certainly be a better use of conservation dollars," Scott Loarie, an ecologist at the Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University, told the magazine.

Mr Loarie and his team forecast that only eight per cent of the world's national park will maintain their existing climate by the turn of the century.

Their findings have been published in a new report entitled Nature.

http://tinyurl.com/yk7284w