Because of climate change, over the next 35 years, butterflies in Britain could be facing extinction. The rising climate change has caused severe droughts in Britain, which the butterflies cannot thrive in. Studies have been done to form models that show in the next few years the greenhouse effect will potentially make droughts much more severe in parts of the world. Researchers studying the butterflies found that during a very severe drought in 1995, 6 of the 28 species of butterflies in the UK dropped dramatically in population. The butterflies suffer so much because their larvae cannot survive the heat and many of the plants that produce nectar for the butterflies cannot survive. The researchers found that the butterflies thrive much better in a larger habitat during a drought because there is much more resources for them.
Obviously, this is not good for these species of butterflies. A species going extinct can have a major effect on many other things. The amount of carbon dioxide that we are releasing needs to dramatically decrease to save these species along with many other things. But to get a whole population to work together towards that cause would be a very difficult thing to do.
http://m.livescience.com/51797-butterflies-disappear-as-climate-changes.html
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