From clean air and water to healthy soil and medicines, our survival and prosperity depend heavily on the rich diversity of plants and animals that make up our world. A 2019 UN report shows that this is approximately the case 1 million plant and animal species could be threatened with extinction worldwide. But new research shows that climate change could threaten as many as six million species with extinction over the next 50 years, including in communities across the United States.
CBS News and Stations investigated how a warming planet and uncontrolled development lead to a significant decline in the number of species, why that is bad for humanity, and to the heroic lengths some scientists will go to protect life on Earth.
For some species it is already too late. For others, there are innovative ways to help rehabilitate a species decimated by climate change. Scientists use a range of tools to protect species in creative and unique ways and anticipate future changes.
In Bisbee, Arizona, a scientist who has spent his career studying evolutionary biology and ecology tracks a three-million-year-old lizard population that is dying at one of the fastest times ever recorded.
Chance Horner / CBS News
Another group is trying that save the Puerto Rican parrotone of the most critically endangered birds in the world, as more destructive hurricanes endanger the parrot’s ecosystem.
Carlos Giusti / AP
See more coverage of how groups are trying to save certain species
More stories will be added above as they are published.
Endangered species in numbers
In 2003, the US Endangered Species Act was introduced 1973 and provides federal protection for wildlife in danger of extinction.
The main agency responsible for implementing the law, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, mentions almost 1,700 species threatened or endangered from April 1. Almost 1,400 kind on the list have active recovery plans. New species are added every year.
A 2019 study estimated that the Endangered Species Act had nearly prevented the extinction of species 300 species since his passage.
But not every species threatened with extinction is listed. A 2016 study found that species typically waited 12 years to gain protection, for those revised between 1973 and 2014. The deadlines in the law stipulate that it may only take two years if it is initiated by a third party.
Yet almost every county in the US has at least one species in danger of disappearing from the planet.
Number of endangered species by county in the US
Scroll or click on a county below for more information about species in the area.
Of all U.S. states, Hawaii has the largest number of species listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, estimated at nearly 500 species.
Endangered or threatened species in Hawaii
Per group:
The number is mainly determined by flowering plants, including the iconic state flower, the ma’o hau hele, or native yellow hibiscus flower.
Getty Images/iStockphoto
California has the second highest number, with nearly 300 endangered species. This includes the San Joaquin kit fox and the Lange’s metalmark butterfly. Like Hawaii, the high number is due to the approximately 170 species of flowering plants. There are higher numbers in coastal, central and southern provinces.
Number of endangered species by county in California
