Bull's-Eye: Geographer Pinpoints Center of North America

Laura Geggel, Senior Writer

livescience

January 5, 2017



The true geographic center of North America has been found.Credit: Juergen Faelchle / Shutterstock.com


The town of Center, North Dakota, is taking center stage, thanks to a geographer who has figured out that it's in the dead center of North America.

The finding lays to rest the decades-old question on the location of the continent's bull's-eye. It's a question that has long eluded scientists — in a 1964 report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), for instance, experts wrote: "There is no generally accepted definition of geographic center [of any geographic area], and no completely satisfactory method for determining it."

Not much progress has been made since then, although the USGS has certainly tried. In 1931, the USGS called a spot near the town of Rugby, North Dakota (population 2,900), the geographic center of North America, only to update it in 1995 to a small body of water about 20 miles (32 kilometers) to the southwest of the town, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Understandably, the question is a difficult one. Researchers have debated whether the center of the continent should factor in North America's islands, and how to account for the constantly changing shorelines.

"There are all these people out there saying, 'There's no real good way to do this,'" Peter Rogerson, a professor of geography at the University at Buffalo in New York who developed the new geographical method, said in a statement. "[But] as a geographer, my feeling is that if we want to come up with a good way of defining a center, we can and we should."

In 2015, Rogerson published a study in the journal The Professional Geographer detailing his novel method — one that allows researchers to locate the geographic center of a region, whether it is a continent, an island or a country, he said.

The technique accurately takes into account the curvature of the Earth, Rogerson said. This is important, as the curvature affects the true distance between two locations, he said.

However, the method doesn't include the continent's islands, and instead focuses on the main landmass, he said.

In late 2016, Rogerson tried out his method to find the center of North America. The result was serendipitously pleasing, given that the point fell in the middle of a small town named Center (population 570), he said.

Center, North Dakota is in the smack-dab middle of North America.Credit: Google Maps
Center of attention

A past method that people used to find a region's center was to balance its cardboard cutout on a needle, Rogerson said.

His method is a bit more complex. It accounts for the mathematical definition of a geographic center: the spatial equivalent of the center of gravity in physics, he said. Moreover, its location minimizes the sum of the squared distances to all other points in a region, he added.

The technique uses a so-called "azimuthal equidistant map projection," which preserves essential qualities related to distance when a rounded, 3D model of a planet is projected onto a flat, 2D surface.

Once a 2D projection was made, Rogerson paired it with a computer program and established a mathematical formula for locating the centroids of 2D polygons. This allowed him to narrow down the geographical center that met the mathematical definition of where a center should be located, he said.

But even this new technique isn't perfect. The azimuthal projection assumes that Earth is a sphere, when it's really slightly ellipsoidal.

"It could always be more exact," said Rogerson. He added that other scientists may take different approaches to the problem, and that his answer doesn't close the door to future pursuits.

The town of Rugby and a bar in Robinson, North Dakota, may be glad to hear that. They're in the middle of a ferocious battle to be known as North America's geographical center, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Apparently, being the "center" is good for business, which may explain why so many places don't even bother with being in the center of a continent, and instead claim to be the center of the universe, including New York's Times Square, a spot in downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma, and the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.

Original article on Live Science.

Dispelling myths around the Arctic Circle’s famed ‘doomsday’ seed vault

Located not far from the North Pole on the island of Spitsbergen, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault safeguards the agricultural plant collections of more than 230 countries. (Mari Tefre/Prospecta Press)

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault is not exactly at the North Pole, but it’s nearer to it than just aboutanywhere else, and well inside the Arctic Circle on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. This beguiling structure juts out from a mountain near the town of Longyearbyen, which is reputed to be the northernmost permanent settlement on Earth and a place where residents must go about their business with rifles slung over their backs, on account of the polar bears. The sun falls below the horizon on Nov. 14 and isn’t seen again until March 8.

It is precisely this remoteness and coldness that led scientist Cary Fowler and his colleagues at the Global Crop Diversity Trust, now known as the Crop Trust, to persuade the Norwegian government to locate the vault there. Almost nine years after it was built, the seed vault has taken on a mythic quality around the world, perhaps because its entrance — stark, geometric, bejeweled by a light sculpture by Norwegian artist Dyveke Sanne — hints at something not just hidden but forbidden. Bauhaus meets Valhalla.

Fowler, with principal photographer Mari Tefre, has just written a book on the vault that lifts the veil on the place — it’s not open to the public even though it quickly became the second most recognized structure in Norway. The book is called “Seeds on Ice,” and if you’re still looking for a gift for the gardener or gourmet in your life, this would work handsomely.

Svalbard’s beguiling paradox of fame and mystery inevitably has spawned various wacky conspiracy theories, including the idea that the vault is a top-secret NATO facility housing a global eugenics project. Fowler hopes the book will dispel a more mainstream misapprehension: that this is a doomsday vault, a time capsule to unlock after a nuclear Armageddon.


Cary Fowler in the main seed vault. Its natural year-round temperature is minus-5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit), but the air is further cooled to the optimum storage temperature of minus-18 degrees Celsius (zero degrees F). (Jim Richardson/Prospecta Press)


The vault today houses more than half a billion seeds representing 881,473 unique varieties of plants used to feed people. The seeds come from the existing seed banks in 233 countries, and they are insurance against the loss of an irreplaceable crop to something as unexciting as a budget crisis in a poor country (or a rich one) to, yes, a cataclysmic nuclear war.

Each seed has its own genetic makeup, and the value of these stocks is in their DNA. If a new disease or pest were to wipe out a strain of wheat, for example, it’s probable that the germ plasm at Svalbard could be used to breed in resistance. Climate change poses another tangible threat, as extreme weather events, rising waters and shifts in temperatures require the development of new varieties to handle the challenges.

In part, the Svalbard vault is best understood by what it is not: It is not a vast subterranean laboratory staffed with the world’s boffins in white coats, a la CERN or a James Bond movie. It is a hole in a mountain, a tunnel that extends a few hundred feet and terminates in three chambers, each 90 feet long, 30 feet wide and 16 feet high. Only one is in use at the moment.

It is simple, relatively cheap to run, and designed to withstand physical calamity and human interference. It is meant to last a thousand years or more.

It is not permanently staffed, though it is constantly monitored and the seeds are housed behind at least five locked doors. You couldn’t just show up and loiter with intent. You would be noticed by the local police, or the controllers in the distant airport tower or the polar bears.

Nor is it a time capsule. The seeds are very much alive and available for use today, if needed.

Unfortunately, that has come to pass with the tragedy that has befallen Aleppo. The Syrian city held the seed bank of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) and contained vital stocks of such staples as wheat, barley, chickpeas and fava beans.

The staff there sent seeds to Svalbard just months before the engulfing civil war. Last year, Svalbard returned many of the seeds to new ICARDA facilities established in Morocco and Lebanon, where scientists and farmers are now growing them to regenerate seed.

The threats to our food supply are often far less stark but no less real. Fowler says agriculture faces “its most severe set of challenges since the Neolithic period.” Besides climate change, this includes the need to grow more food for an increasing population using fewer resources. One contemporary approach to this is the development of genetically modified organisms by multinational biotech companies. The vault doesn’t contain GMOs, though Fowler’s stance on this is not strictly in opposition to transgenic breeding. His interest, instead, is in conserving all the natural genetic diversity embodied in these seeds as insurance for our food supply in the centuries to come.

In the early ’90s, Fowler, a native Tennessean, was recruited by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization to oversee a review of the world’s crop diversity and found many national seed collections in dire states of storage and care. He has since left the directorship of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, though he remains an adviser to the trust and is chair of the seed vault’s International Advisory Council.

He says the Svalbard vault could bring a more rational system of seed conservation to seed banks around the world by relieving some of the pressure on national collections and the resources needed to maintain them.

Fowler has been immersed in this field for decades, but Svalbard made him realize, he said, that many of the world’s agricultural crops are not familiar even to experts. What, you might ask, is sesbania, or Chihuahuan snout-bean or voa vanga?

The point is that tastes and crops change — how many gardeners in the United States were growing bok choy or arugula 50 years ago? “People look at the seed vault and see it as a conservation initiative,” he told me. “But those of us in the field have multiple motivations. The reason for wanting to conserve it isn’t to make us feel good but have it be of use in the future.”

Like the crystalline, fiber-optic sculpture at its portal, the vault is a beacon of optimism and comity in a world that may seem cold and dark. It is a gift to the entire human family for generations to come. Santa, an Arctic neighbor, no doubt would approve.

The Best Maps of 2016

National Geographic
Greg Miller/Dec 19, 2016


From the craters of Mars to the streets of Zurich, these maps show cartography at its best.




This map comes from that traced the route of two men who attempted to hike the length of the Grand Canyon in 2015—an 800-mile trek completed by fewer than two dozen people. Cartographer Charles Preppernau led a team that created a 3D digital rendering of the canyon.Then, they meticulously adjusted the lighting and color to maximize the sense of depth. Even the simulated snow (seen above) was carefully added in places where real snow would accumulate. “We really wanted to showcase the terrain of the canyon,” Preppernau says.

Map by Charles Preppernau, National Geographic




The Swiss national mapping agency, swisstopo, is renowned for maps that make the country’s mountainous terrain pop off the page. This year the agency has been , making its renderings of the entire country—including cities like Zurich, above—easier to read and more striking than ever.










The screenshot above comes from an —created by three students at the University of Wisconsin, Madison—that explores the maritime world of the colonial era. The students compiled historical records of sea travel from 1750 to 1850, then created an interface that lets users select a colonial power—British, French, Dutch or Spanish—and see where their ships roamed. Users can also examine wind patterns, weather reports, and notes from the captains’ logs.
Map by , , and


GPS and other technological advances are allowing scientists to track wild animals in more detail than ever before. Geographer James Cheshire and designer Oliver Uberti of animal tracking data for their book, Where the Animals Go, published this year. The map above charts the wanderings of a single elephant seal in the Southern Ocean.






Map by Mapping Inequality


It’s been a good year for map lovers. Whether you’re into old maps, new maps, or new ways of interacting with old maps, there was much to cheer about in 2016.


Lots of great historical maps became more accessible this year. One of the world’s great private map collections is now open to the public at Stanford University. The Central Intelligence Agency, which isn’t exactly known for sharing, released a slew of historical maps to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its Cartography Center. Here at All Over the Map, we were excited to publish a few maps that haven’t been readily available online, including secret Japanese military maps and a map used in 1783 at the Treaty of Paris to negotiate the borders of the brand-new United States of America.


It’s nearly impossible to keep up with all the innovative and beautifully designed maps being made these days. And thanks to the proliferation of digital cartography tools, lots of non-cartographers are making maps now too. This year, scientists mapped the rise of “megaregions”—clusters of interconnected cities—and documented the increasingly fragmented areas of Earth that can’t be reached by road. Journalists got into the act too, making sophisticated and attractive maps to examine everything from the presidential election to the aerial surveillance of U.S. cities.


Cartography may be in the midst of a digital revolution, but if you think hand-drawn maps have no place in the modern world, consider the case of the tourist who, earlier this year, wanted to mail a card to a small family farm in Iceland but didn’t know the address. He drew a map on the envelope instead, and it still found its intended destination—proof, if you really needed it, of the power of maps.

‘Up Side Down’ map quiz puts your geography skills to the test

Curbed
Barbara Eldredge/Dec 21, 2016


See cities, countries, and lakes as you’ve never seen them before


Pentagram


Mapping is more than a handy reference tool: It’s a powerful technique to understand the world. But few people recognize the assumptions and Euro-centric conventions inherent in typical renderings of the earth. As a new project from Pentagram partner Angus Hyland illustrates, “up” is arbitrary for our spherical world.


Last year, Hyland designed a beautiful, “upside down” world map for the company holiday card. This year, he’s transformed it into a booklet and interactive geography quiz you can play online.


Players are asked to identify cities, countries, and lakes from unconventional perspectives or entirely removed from their typical context. Even for avid geography nerds, picking out Japan in a trio of topsy-turvy archipelagos is a mental workout.




Flipping our mental models of countries and continents also underscores an important point. As Pentagram writes on its blog: “This simple act questioned the orthodoxy of the world map; itself a consequence of European explorers eager to place themselves at the centre of the earth.” Give it a whirl here.




Via: Co.Design, Pentagram

Plate tectonics shift?

Olivine provides new data set for understanding plate tectonics

December 15, 2016
Geology Page

Shown is a typical rock outcrop of peridotite, which contains a series of melt veins, the slightly green horizontal bands running across the rock. Credit: University of Delaware

Plate tectonics, the idea that the surface of the Earth is made up of plates that move apart and come back together, has been used to explain the locations of volcanoes and earthquakes since the 1960s.

One well-known example of this is the Pacific Ring of Fire, a 25,000-mile stretch of the Pacific Ocean known for its string of underwater volcanoes (nearly 450 of them) and earthquake sites, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).


On the Pacific Coast, this area sits along the subduction zone known as the Cascadia plate, which runs down the west coast of Canada to the west coast of the United States. Most earthquakes are said to occur at subduction zones or along faults in tectonic plates.

What actually defines a tectonic plate and how thick plates are, however, has remained a hotly debated topic. This is because while scientists know that the top of the plate is the surface of the Earth, defining the plate’s bottom boundary has been challenging.

A recent study by the University of Delaware’s Jessica Warren and colleagues at the University of Oxford and the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, provides a new data set that scientists can use to understand this problem.

“Understanding the thickness of the plate is important to understanding how plates move around, both when they form at mid-ocean ridges and later on when the material goes back down into the Earth through subduction zones such as those in Cascadia, the Andes, Japan and Indonesia,” said Warren, assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment.

“It also can help scientists model and predict future earthquake and volcanic hazards, where they might occur and how deep the devastation might be depending on what the models show.”
Olivine a robust model of Earth’s interior

To understand what’s happening inside the Earth, scientists must be creative because studying the interior of the Earth in situ is impossible.

Instead, scientists study how seismic waves pass through the Earth and then invert the signal that is received to reverse engineer what’s happening. They also model the thermal properties of the rock, including where temperature changes occur, because they know that the interior of the Earth is hotter than the surface crust.

“Science has been telling us that what we predict for temperature changes within the Earth should agree with what the seismic waves are telling us. The problem has been that these two models don’t agree,” said Warren, a petrology expert who studies the origin of rocks and how they formed.

One longstanding argument has been whether the Gutenberg discontinuity — the identification of a change in seismic properties — represents the bottom of the plate.

To investigate this problem, Warren and her colleagues performed laboratory experiments on olivine, the main mineral found in the Earth’s mantle (the upper ~250 miles of the planet). Olivine also is the main mineral in peridotite rock, which is considered to be a robust model of the interior of the Earth’s composition.

The researchers took olivine and added melt (also known as basalt) to mimic how a new plate is created at a mid-ocean ridge. The team then twisted the olivine-melt mixture under high temperatures and high pressure to determine the influence of melt on the alignment of olivine crystals. They then used these experiments to predict the seismic signature of this rock and compared it to the seismic signature associated with the Gutenberg discontinuity.

The team’s results showed that the Gutenberg discontinuity does not define the bottom of the plate, but instead is caused by the presence of olivine-melt mixtures within tectonic plates.

“I’ve spent over a decade studying how olivine minerals are oriented in peridotite rocks because the flow patterns provide a historical record of how these rocks from the mantle have changed and deformed over time,” says Warren.

The research team’s results suggest the best way to model the plate thickness is based on the thermal profile and the conductive cooling that occurs as a plate ages.

“We think that the bottom of the plate is below where you have a cooling in the temperature profile. It is a layer that is associated with melt being trapped or frozen in the rock and changing the seismic properties in the rock that subsequently produced the layer that we’re imaging,” she said. “By our estimates, this would mean that the tectonic plates in the ocean are approximately 100 kilometers or about 62 miles thick. ”

The team’s data also offers an explanation for the Guttenberg discontinuity, Warren continued, saying that it corresponds to melt that was trapped or frozen in the rock after melting at mid-ocean ridges, which produced a change in how the seismic waves pass through the rock.

Reference:
Lars N. Hansen, Chao Qi, Jessica M. Warren. Olivine anisotropy suggests Gutenberg discontinuity is not the base of the lithosphere. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2016; 113 (38): 10503 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1608269113

Note: The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of Delaware.

Read more : http://www.geologypage.com/2016/12/plate-tectonics-shift.html#ixzz4TIXe2ZGu
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How to stop the sixth mass extinction

By John D. Sutter, CNN/Dec 11, 2016

Scientists warn the Earth is entering the sixth mass extinction. Three quarters of all species could vanish.

Listening for extinction: the amphibian apocalypse

Iconic African elephant population on the brink

If coral reefs disappear, so will they

The old man and the bee

The birds on this island eat plastic

(CNN) — The Earth is on the verge of a mass extinction event.

To understand how big of a deal that is you don't have to look much further than the definition of "mass extinction." It means that three-quarters of all species vanish -- forever.

In all of history, that's happened only five times.

The sixth extinction would be the first caused by humans.

"We are basically annihilating the life on our planet -- and that is the only known life ... in the entire universe," said Paul Ehrlich, Bing professor of population studies at Stanford University.

"It's life that shaped the planet, that made it possible for us to live here. It's life that still makes it possible for us to live here. (If) we don't have the diversity of other organisms, we're done."

I've been reporting on the coming extinction crisis this year for a CNN series called "Vanishing." And I can tell you that while this topic is enormously depressing, there is some good news: We know how to slow or hopefully stop the sixth extinction.

Anthony Barnosky, another extinction expert, also from Stanford, told me humans have at most 20 years to make sweeping changes about our relationship with nature. If we do that, he said, we can avoid the sixth extinction.

But here's what needs to happen, according to the experts.

1. STOP BURNING FOSSIL FUELS

Burning fossil fuels and chopping down rainforests is heating up the atmosphere. That's creating trouble for all corners of the natural world, from the Rocky Mountains, where the tiny pika is overheating, to the oceans, where coral reefs are being decimated as the oceans warm and become more acidic.

We know that to avert the worst of climate change we need to limit warming to at most 2 degrees Celsius. To do that, the world needs to be off fossil fuels this century -- hopefully closer to 2030 than 2100. That's a tall order, but Stanford University researchers have shown we can do it with existing technology like wind, solar and nuclear.

Policies that promote cleaner energy include carbon taxes, cap-and-trade pollution pricing systems and renewable energy tax credits. The Paris Agreement on climate change, ratified by the United States and 115 other countries, also creates a framework for a rapid shift away from fossil fuels. The Trump administration in the United States, however, threatens to move the world's second-biggest climate polluter away from that agreement and back towards dirty, climate-warming fuels.

2. PROTECT HALF THE EARTH'S LAND -- AND OCEANS

This idea comes from renowned biologist E.O. Wilson: Put aside half the surface of the Earth -- both land and oceans -- for the betterment of the nature and biodiversity. Maybe that sounds like a lot, but Wilson argues it's necessary if we want to avert crisis. Some 84% of species could be saved if we protected all that land. "That amount, as I and others have shown, can be put together from large and small fragments around the world to remain relatively natural, without removing people living there or changing property rights," Wilson wrote in an op-ed in The New York Times.

The trouble: We're not protecting nearly enough, according to experts. Currently, only 15% of land and 4% of the world's oceans are protected from encroachment by humans, mostly in the form of farms. Already, people have used up nearly 40% of the world's land for farms and raising livestock -- much of it to grow feed for cattle. Eating less meat -- or going vegetarian -- uses less land (and is far better for the climate; beef is an especially big polluter).

3. FIGHT ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING

Some of the world's most iconic species -- particularly the elephant and rhino -- are threatened with extinction simply because people are slaughtering these majestic creatures to sell their body parts on the black market. Elephant ivory is carved into trinkets. And rhino horn is mistakenly sold as an aphrodisiac.

And there are other less-known markets, too, including those for pangolin meat (a delicacy), giraffe tails (bracelets) and tiger bone (medicine). Efforts to shut down these markets have been grossly inadequate, as the black market in environmental products is estimated to be worth $91 billion to $258 billion per year. Compare that to drug trafficking, the most lucrative black market, which is worth $344 billion per year, according to a United Nations and Interpol estimate.

Experts say better law enforcement is needed to stop poaching. And consumers -- especially those in Asia, where wildlife products tend to be popular -- need to stop buying these illegal and harmful goods. Groups like WildAid and Education for Nature Vietnam are using advertising campaigns to try to make these products seem uncool.

4. SLOW HUMAN POPULATION GROWTH

It sounds callous, but more people means more food, more land and more resources. Ehrlich, from Stanford, said population growth is one of the main drivers of the Earth's extinction crisis. The population was about 4 billion in 1980. It's now 7.4 billion and is rapidly heading for 9.7 billion by 2050, according to the United Nations.

There are ways for each person to conserve, of course. The World Bank says the average American, for example, produces about 10 times as much climate-change pollution per year as an average person from India. And we needlessly use resources we know are harmful. Plastics, for example, are clogging the world's oceans. We dump the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic into the ocean each minute, according to the World Economic Forum. Some researchers expect there to be more plastic than fish in the ocean, by weight, by the year 2050. That's almost unthinkable.

5. RECONNECT WITH THE NATURAL WORLD, AND OPEN OUR EYES

If there's a fact that underlies all this, perhaps it's this: We're no longer connected to nature. We don't understand it and therefore, naively, dangerously, we figure it's doing just fine or will rebound. Barnosky, the extinction expert from Stanford, said we think of the natural world like a bottomless checking account when we need to see it as a savings account.

We humans also have ridiculously short attention spans. Issues like extinction and climate change play out over decades, centuries and millennia. Our actions now -- or inaction -- will matter for thousands of years. "You can have catastrophic events that are seen in slow motion, basically, and not register on people very well," said Ehrlich. We must find a way to reconnect with nature and to see this wave of extinction for the crisis that it is.

Have other ideas or questions? Please e-mail me: john.sutter@cnn.com.

Editor's Note: John D. Sutter is a columnist for CNN Opinion who focuses on climate change and social justice. Follow him on Snapchat, Facebook and email. This story is part of a CNN series called "Vanishing." Learn more about the sixth extinction and get involved.

Half the world's species failing to cope with global warming as Earth races towards its sixth mass extinction

Professor John Wiens describes Donald Trump's election as a disaster for the planet
Ian Johnston Environment Correspondent
Thursday 8 December 2016
The Independent Online

The world has warmed by about 1C above pre-industrial levels Nasa


Nearly half the species on the planet are failing to cope with global warming the world has already experienced, according to an alarming new study that suggests the sixth mass extinction of animal life in the Earth’s history could take place in as little as 50 years.

A leading evolutionary biologist, Professor John Wiens, found that 47 per cent of nearly 1,000 species had suffered local extinctions linked to climate change with populations absent from areas where they had been found before.

Professor Wiens, who is editor of the Quarterly Review of Biology and a winner of the American Society of Naturalists’ Presidential Award, said the implications for the future were serious because his review showed plants and animals were struggling to deal with the relatively small amount of global warming experienced to date.

So far the world has warmed by about 1C above pre-industrial levels, but it is expected to hit between 2.6 and 4.8C by 2100 if nothing is done to reduce greenhouse gases.

Video: World Facing First Mass Extinction Since the Dinosaurs

Another problem facing life on Earth is the election of climate science denier Donald Trump as US president, which Professor Wiens, of Arizona University, described as a “global disaster”.

In his study, published in the journal PLOS Biology, the scientist examined academic papers about 976 different species from all over the world that had been studied at least twice, once about 50 years ago and again within the last 10 years.

“In almost half the species looked at, there have been local extinctions already,” he said.

“This is stuff that’s already happened with just a small change to the climate. We’re looking at a two to five-fold increase [in warming over the next century].

“What it shows is species cannot change fast enough to keep up with a small change in climate. That’s the big implication – even a small change in temperature and they cannot handle it.”

The study looked at 716 different kinds of animals and 260 plants from Asia, Europe, North and South America, and elsewhere.

Local extinctions were found to have occurred among 47.1 per cent of species at the “warm edge” of their traditional range, as it became too hot for them. There were few areas of the planet that were unaffected.

“Overall, the frequency of local extinctions was similar across most climatic zones, habitats, gradients and clade,” the PLOS Biology paper said.

However Professor Wiens found climate-related local extinctions were “substantially higher” among freshwater species at 74 per cent of the 31 studied.

The current rate of global extinction of animals and plants is believed to be faster than some of the five great extinction events in the Earth’s history, but so far the total number lost does not compare to the species lost when the dinosaurs were wiped out about 65 million years ago.

However one reason geologists are considering declaring a new epoch in the planet’s history is the rapid loss of flora and fauna that will have a noticeable effect on the fossil record.

Professor Wiens said: “It’s true that in terms of global extinction of entire species that have already happened, I think we’re not there [at the sixth mass extinction] yet.

“But I think unfortunately we are on track for that to happen. 

“That’s sort of the good news – it hasn’t happened yet. But if we don’t do anything it seems like that’s going to happen in the next 50 to 100 years.”

There were already “two bad signs” that Mr Trump’s election would make things worse, Professor Wiens said.

“One would be this person he’s assigned to head the EPA [renowned climate science denier Scott Pruitt] and the other thing is pulling out of the Paris accord [on climate change],” he said.

“The EPA in this country, they are the ones supposed to be protecting the environment.”Climate change: It's "game over" for planet earth

Video: Climate Change: It's "game over" for Planet Earth 

In what was perhaps a sign of the desperation felt by environmental scientists in the US and elsewhere, he jokingly suggested the UK should invade the US or the US and Canada should swap leaders with Justin Trudeau taking over in the White House.

Asked what he would really say to Mr Trump if they met, Professor Wiens said: “I guess I would tell him ‘what would you think if there was a country on the other side of the world that was releasing gas that was going to cause extinctions in our country, to hurt our crops and make people starve’.

“He would say, ‘tell me where it is and we’ll bomb them tomorrow’. Then I’d say, ‘this is what we’re doing to other countries because we are the big polluters.’

“People are already having serious problems with food security. People are going to die and it’s going to be the fault of our country and other big polluters.

“There is no question he would militarily intervene against a country that was doing to us what we are doing to other countries.”

This article has been altered to remove a joking remark made by Professor Wiens about Donald Trump. Several websites have misrepresented the comment as a serious suggestion, omitting the key context that it was meant as a joke, and Professor Wiens has received a number of threatening emails and phonecalls.