The report published by Queensland scientists thoroughly explained how a small rat species named Melomys rubicola disappeared from Bramble Cay, a small island in the Great Barrier Reef. Up to 30 years ago, hundreds of these small rodents lived on the island, but climate change caused a vast portion of the island beach to shrink due to rising tides and rising sea level. In less than ten years, from 2004 to 2014, the creatures’ habitat has been reduced by 97 percent, from 5.4 acres to just 0.16 acres.
Although some exceptional meteorological events such as the La Nina hurricane negatively affected the local habitat, the increase in global mean temperature is largely responsible for the event. Human exploitation of the environment has been relentless in the last decades, with extensive animal farming being one of the causes of the climate change effect. As the photographer Mishka Kenner showed in one of his famous shocking photos, animal factory farms are ravaging the Earth surface by occupying up to 45 percent of its land mass.
Scientists explained in their report that no traces of the animal were found in Bramble Cay since 2009 despite their “exhaustive efforts.” A small chance that an undetected population may still exist in Papua New Guinea still exists, although it was never confirmed by any sighting or survey. The team concluded that up to one-fourth of all animal species could become extinct before 2050 if climate change’s rate is not reduced.
