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'Kill yourself immediately': Biologist takes aim at climate change denier Donald Trump

An evolutionary biologist who says all animal life could be wiped out in as little as 50 years has instructed Donald Trump to “kill yourself immediately”.

Professor John Wiens took aim at the controversial president elect, who refutes the existence of climate change, while describing the “global disaster” taking hold of our planet.

The Arizona University scientist found that 47 per cent of almost 1000 species had suffered local extinctions linked to climate change, according to the Independent.

Trump has repeatedly denied the existence of climate change. Photo: Getty
Trump has repeatedly denied the existence of climate change. Photo: Getty

Those species were found to be non-existent in areas that they once populated.

Trump has tweeted dozens of times about the ‘lie’ that is global warming.

“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” he wrote in November 2012 on Twitter.

Professor Wiens joked that if he ever got to meet Trump he would instruct him to “kill himself”, but when questioned again he gave a more serious answer.

“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’.”

The Arizona University scientist said the threat of climate change is far too serious to deny, and suggested in a new study that the sixth mass extinction of animal life on Earth could take place as soon as 2066.

A protester's sign at the People's Climate March in New York City. Photo: Getty
A protester's sign at the People's Climate March in New York City. Photo: Getty

The study examined 976 species at least twice over the past 50 years and found the results to be a shocking eye-opener.

“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," he added.

Today's top news stories – December 9