Runge quoted in E&E News article on endangered species, mass extinction
E&E News spoke with Jeffrey Runge, a research professor in the School of Marine Sciences at the University of Maine, for the article, “Trump set to weaken wildlife rules during ‘mass extinction.’” As many as 1 million species of plants and animals are in danger of extermination in the coming decades, according to a U.N. panel of scientists. The Trump administration is scaling back the Endangered Species Act, which could make it harder to protect wildlife at a time when scientists say the threats against it are growing, according to the article. In Maine, researchers are racing to understand how a warming ocean will affect the remaining 400 North Atlantic right whales, which depend on plankton that’s sensitive to changes in ocean currents and temperatures, the article states. Warmer, saltier water is driving away the whales’ food. Scientists understand the process, but they’re still trying to predict how the whales would react to ongoing changes, Runge said. “[These whales] are sentinels; they’re indicators. They’re telling us that the Gulf of Maine ecosystem is changing,” he added. According to Runge, the driving force is the CO2 increase. “It’s very alarming,” he said. “My efforts are more and more to see what I can do to just point out that it’s immediate — we need to do something about CO2 levels rising.”