Climate change impact on animal species

Climate change is one of tremendous dangers, which might occur in the next 100 years. To date it is of scientific concern to forecast what transformations will happen to the world, including natural environment, technology, social livelihood, etc. Animals are probably the only living creatures, which have already passed the age of major natural alterations dozens of millions years ago, at least some of them did. Do you remember dinosaurs, much depicted by modern film industry? That’s right, this is animal species, which could not overcome severe climate change. Age of tropic climate has been replaced by glacial eras for several times, but what consequences might bring next climate change period for animal habitat?

1.       Temperature shift is one of the most urgent in this context. In particular, it influences on processes in a body of any being, and the nature taken as a whole. Plants can experience severe changes, which leads to meal disorder for animals. Therefore, they may have less food to eat and, in the end, reduction of species sizes or even population quantity is unavoidable. In addition, scholars from Singapore National University state that hot temperature and unstable precipitations will definitely reduce body sizes of animals. In particular, their research gives some examples of possible body mass decline: fish – on 6-22% per 1°, bugs – 1-3%, salamanders   -14%. For the last 50 years certain species have already experienced major body decrease (common frogs (Bufobufo), red deer (Cervuselaphus), and marine iguanas (Amblyrhynchuscristatus).

2.       The emergence of new species and decrease of common ones is also a point to consider. Scientists from Washington University claim that some animals have not much time to avoid climate change influence. The Earth temperature rises due to greenhouse gases, the climate in Western Hemisphere will change dramatically and mammals in the North and South America will have to move into new habitats, which are more suitable for their existence. According to scientific estimates, 9% of American species, as well as 40% of animals from other regions, will not manage to escape climate change due to low speed.

3.       On the contrary, tropical species might also clash with despite the fact that hot climate is essential for them.The key thing is that there are some animal kinds, which possess extra-sensitivity to even the slightest temperature shifts. 

4.       Among already confirmed species, which are likely to survive, there are many carnivore species, armadillos, deer, coyotes and some moose. Many of these animals can move at a fairly long distances to reach the places where they can normally survive quickly.

5.       Massive animal migration to colder planet areas is noticed even today. There are 2 thousand records about changes of animal areal borders. Equatorial species move with a speed of 1,5 km / year to Northern and Southern poles, while birds are flying 12 meters higher. So, the direct influence of climate change on animals and their habitat is a no-doubt-issue, which testifies the probability of species’ survival. 

How serious is the sea level rise threat?

There have been numerous studies pointing to the connection between climate change and sea level rise, warning the world that in not so far future from now many parts of the world will likely experience severe flooding if global temperatures continue to grow.

The latest such study comes from Michael Schaeffer of Climate Analytics and Wageningen University who claims that even if we limit global temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius, global sea levels will still continue to rise, reaching between 1.5 and 4 metres above present-day levels by the year 2300.

He also concluded that if world were to limit rise in global temperatures to below 1.5 degrees Celsius this would likely halve sea-level rise by 2300, compared to a 2-degree scenario.

These studies attract plenty of public attention, despite being just assumptions of future „could be“ scenarios. The scientists admit the fact that it is very difficult to quantify the level of sea level rise in years to come, especially because it is still uncertain whether global sea level found for the past could be carried into the future.

These future estimates, despite still being connected with significant level of uncertainty, all point to the fact that we must take sea level rise issue far more seriously than we are doing it today.

If we continue business as usual scenario sea level rise will spell major problems for many coastal areas all over the globe. Coastal communities are already running out of time to adapt to global rise in sea levels.

The affected areas will not only be low lying deltaic countries like Bangladesh and Netherlands, and small islands, but also major cities such as New York. Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said that one metre sea level rise would increase the frequency of severe flooding from once per century to once every three years for New York City.

How much does deforestation contribute to climate change?

The emissions coming from deforestation play significant role in climate change phenomenon though not as much as previously predicted. According to a latest NASA study the previous estimates about the contribution of emissions from deforestation in total worldwide man-made carbon emissions need to be significantly reduced to get the real picture.

The NASA used satellite data in order to determine the actual contribution of deforestation in global emissions in period from 2000-2005. Their conclusion was that deforestation accounted for approximately 10 percent of the total worldwide man-made carbon emissions in the period from 2000-2005.

This percentage is roughly one third of previously published estimates. It also has to be said that is the first study that used satellite data while previous studies mostly used tabular bookkeeping models to obtain the numbers.

Though this is a significantly smaller percentage than previously thought this doesn't change the fact that deforestation is still one of the top climate change contributors.

Deforestation is primarily connected with tropical rainforests. These ancient forests are huge carbon sinkers and absorb large quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere. This means that the destruction of these forests not only creates new emissions but also reduces the total forests cover, doubling the negative impact on climate change.

We are still talking about the losses of millions of hectares of forest per year which represents a major environmental issue, not only because of the climate change issue, but also because tropical forests are areas with the richest biodiversity on our planet, meaning that many plant and animal species will lose their homes if we continue this path of destruction.

The scientists soon plan to update this study with information whether the carbon emissions from deforestation increased or decreased in the second half of the 2000s.

Increased forest cover doesn't always mean better carbon storage

The currently dominant opinion is that the more forests we plant the more carbon it will be stored. This is true in most cases but not always as the latest study by the University of Exeter shows.

Dr Iain Hartley from the University of Exeter argues that the fact that Arctic is becoming more and greener isn't beneficial for climate change because the carbon stored in Arctic tundra could be released into the atmosphere by new trees growing in the warmer region, which could exacerbate climate change impact even further.

The greening usually results in more carbon dioxide (CO2) being sink from the atmosphere, therefore helping to reduce the impact of climate change but this is not the case with Arctic tundra.

The expansion of forest into Arctic tundra could stimulate decomposition rates in soils leading to significant release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Tundras are specific because their soil contains plenty of stored organic matter, due to slow decomposition, and the new trees stimulate the decomposition of this matter leading to more release of CO2 into the atmosphere.

The scientists believe that Arctic soils currently store more carbon than is present in the atmosphere and so the release of this stored carbon could have devastating impact on climate change.

The role of soil conditions is yet to be fully understood in climate change equation. By the current looks of it planting new trees in Arctic tundra doesn’t look to be beneficial for climate change, in fact, it could lead to more bad climate change news. It is up to science to determine whether this pattern is confined strictly to Arctic or not.

Building highway through rainforests contributes to climate change

Rainforests absorb huge quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which means that the clearance and destruction of these forests have extremely negative environmental impact. Climate change is growing in strength meaning we need our allies to fight with us, and rainforests are no doubt one of our most important allies in global fight against climate change.

The latest study from the Florida University has studied the environmental impact of building highways through rainforests and the effect of this on climate change. The study has concluded following:

1. Highway paving facilitates migration and population growth in communities. More people is often associated  with massive forest clearing and conflicts over natural resources.

2. Highway paving has left the Amazon rainforest more vulnerable to clearing with fire, which results in increase in carbon emissions and adds more impact to climate change.

Paving highways through rainforests can indeed lead to significant economic benefits but these economic benefits are very often accompanied with massive environmental damage so it is of vital importance to consider what is gained and what is lost by paving highways.

The massive environmental damage doesn't only refer to more greenhouse gas emissions but also in huge biodiversity loss because rainforests belong to areas with the richest biodiversity in the world. Paving highways through rainforests could therefore also lead to decline and extinction of many species.

Choosing side in climate change debate

If you happen to follow climate change science more closely you'll be able to read about new climate change predictions at almost a daily level. The majority of these predictions or estimates, what ever you called them, refer to negative consequences of climate change, describing climate change as the biggest environmental threat of our time, the one that could seriously jeopardize our future wellbeing.

On the other side are climate change skeptics who believe that climate change is the biggest scientific hoax of our time. They claim that there is no reason to fear climate change and doubt currently dominant climate change science by claiming it is influenced by funding and different political factors.

To an average Joe it must seem very difficult to choose side but let's look at the logic behind it all. There have been far more studies confirming ongoing climate change impact than those that deny it.

True, none of these studies is 100% accurate in future predictions simply because climate change has many factors that make total predictability almost impossible, at least given our current scientific and technological level of knowledge.

Question to climate change skeptics - how to deny the correlation between the increase in greenhouse gas emissions and the global increase in temperatures? Just a coincidence or what?

Other similar questions - how to explain more frequent droughts, floods and extreme weather events without involving the climate change issue?

Is mainstream science really capable to pull out the global hoax of these massive proportions and what's the point of it? Would so many different scientists across the globe all be lying to us and scare us with catastrophic future climate change scenarios?

What side would you choose and why?

Change in ocean salinity due to climate change

The Australian scientists have studied global ocean salinity and have concluded that there is a clear change in ocean salinity that will cause acceleration in the global rainfall and evaporation cycle.

According to scientists the water cycle has strengthened by 4% from 1950-2000, a twice as much as predicted by current global climate models. They have concluded this by studying the relationship between salinity, rainfall and evaporation in climate models.

Dr Paul Durack from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory says that „these changes (ocean salinity and water cycle) suggest that arid regions have become drier and high rainfall regions have become wetter in response to observed global warming."

If the global temperatures continue to rise they will accelerate water cycle even further, for instance the global temperature increase of 3ºC by the end of the century should accelerate water cycle by staggering 24%, causing more droughts and floods.

Why are these changes in global water cycle important? Dr Durack said that these changes will affect food availability, stability, access and utilization.

Oceans play extremely important role in global climate. They not only receive around 80% of the total surface rainfall but are also the most important carbon sinkers, preventing in the process even stronger climate change impact.

Why is climate change happening?

The science still doesn't fully agree on why exactly is climate change happening though the dominant opinion seems to be because of the increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.

The others believe this is purely the nature's cycle and humanity and industry aren't to blame for ongoing climate change.

This divided opinion among mainstream scientists is making climate change issue a very controversial question and a highly debated topic.

If we go with the majority of scientists then we should blame our industry and our dependence on fossil fuels for the growing climate change impact. Under this scenario the only solution to tackle climate change is to significantly reduce the global level of greenhouse gas emissions.

So if we do know the proper solution for tackling climate change why don't we use it to remove all fears about the future doomsday scenarios caused by climate change? This is the question we should be asking world leaders because all they do is talk.

They talk and talk and there is still no climate change deal in sight because of the difference in opinion between countries. It's like nobody wants to do the first move, and they seem to be all afraid of the potential damage to industry if they decide to go for the cuts in emissions.

What about climate change? Why aren't we afraid of it? Why aren't we afraid of frequent extreme events, extinction of species, acidity of our oceans, droughts, floods, new diseases and all the other „scary stuff“ connected with out future climate?

It seems like we are waiting for worst to happen in order to react and this is anything but a good policy, especially when climate change is involved.

The science is warning us that we must do our best to avoid the global temperature increase of 2 degrees Celsius and how are we responding to it? By increasing greenhouse gas emissions even more.  The year 2009 was the only recent year when global greenhouse gas emissions went down and this was only happening because of the global financial crisis.

There are also people who believe that climate change isn't happening and that science is making this up. I don't see the purpose in science lying to us, what exactly would scientists achieve with it?

The truth seems to be very scary and could become even scarier if we fail to act immediately. Climate change must become the top issue on global political agenda. The ignorance won't do this time because we are talking about global phenomenon that could change the lives of our future generations. There's simply too much at stake to just continue business as usual scenario. Let’s act before it’s too late.

The benefits of tackling climate change

Climate change is really the biggest environmental issue of modern time and here is the comprehensive list including various benefits of tackling climate change.

1. Reduced biodiversity loss. Many plants and animals are declining in population or even becoming extinct because of climate change. Successfully tackling climate change would therefore help preserve rich biodiversity of our world.
2. The strong development of clean energy sector. Tackling climate change can be only done successfully with transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.
3. Using more renewable energy instead of coal, oil and natural gas would further help our environment by reducing the pollution in many parts of the world.
4. Less ocean acidification and much healthier marine food chain.
5. Preservation of rainforests. Deforestation of our forests and rainforests accounts for significant share of total CO2 emissions.
6. Less hunger in the world. Climate change causes droughts and droughts lead to hunger.
7. Much safer future water supply. Glaciers are the largest reservoirs of freshwater on our planet. The melting of glaciers as the result of increased climate change impact heavily decreases the total amount of freshwater resources available on our planet.
8. Less environmental refugees. It is expected that climate change will lead to millions of people becoming environmental refugees in not so distant future.
9. Preventing new disease. Climate change could easily lead to new diseases.
10.  The moral growth of our society in general. By tackling climate change our society and civilization in general would have the perfect chance to show its maturity by showing true care for our environment and our planet in general. After all, this planet is still our only home.

Climate change and hunger in Africa

Africa is continent where hunger is a very common thing for many of the Africans. In a modern world we like to believe that our society has reached certain civilization standards but one look at the Africa and thousands of children that starve to death is enough to see just how civilized our society really is.

And there's also the matter of climate change. Africa is the least responsible for global warming of our planet but will nonetheless pay the highest price. The industrialized countries of the developed world played major role in emitting massive amounts of greenhouse gases and Africa will sadly be first in line where climate change will show its scary face.

The latest report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) says that spring rains in eastern Horn of Africa are projected to begin late this year and be substantially lower than normal. This is the area with some of the poorest countries in the world such as Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Lower amount of rainfall would have significant impacts on crop production and would lead to even bigger hunger in this area. Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are already experiencing severe food crises and with less rainfall things could get only worse.

Droughts will also lead to severe water shortages and many African countries will be in need of large funds for aid refuges and drought-affected communities.

The scientists believe that there is a direct link between the rapid warming in Indian and Pacific oceans and decreased amount of rainfall in Africa. They say that the combination of warmer air and increased humidity over the Indian and Pacific oceans produces more frequent rainfall over the oceans. The air then rises over the equatorial Indian and Pacific oceans, and goes west, towards the Africa. Once it reaches Africa the air has already lost moisture from rainfall over the oceans, which leads to decreased rain amounts in many parts of the eastern Africa.

Since the warming trend is expected to continue Africa can expect more droughts  in years to come. With droughts there comes more hunger, and with more hunger there comes more deaths.