How Does Global Warming Affect the Environment & Animals?

Global warming affects all living creatures.

We are on the precipice of a building storm. Imagine a world without migrating ducks. A world devoid of the polar icecaps, and inland cities such as Dallas and Atlanta suddenly turned into coastal retreats. This strange world may not be as unreal as one may think. Since the birth of the Industrial Revolution, humankind has become a carbon-producing, greenhouse gas-making machine that is annihilating our earth's atmosphere and destroying wildlife habitat at an unbelievable rate.

Greenhouse gases and carbon-emissions are released into the air by cars, turning on a light switch, and even by something as simple as leaving a radio or computer on overnight. Each person in your family creates a carbon footprint that measures the amount of negative effect he has on the environment through global warming. Global warming can be slowed, and even reversed, if we all pitch in and reduce our individual carbon footprints. If we do not work together to reduce our greenhouse gas production, several things may happen.

The earth is losing an unprecedented amount of animal habitat to the effects of global warming. The greatest effects global warming has on our planet is on the oceans. As the effects of carbon raise earth's average temperature, the polar icecaps melt and the seas rise. As the seas rise, fish lose their habitat. Reefs that once rested in water shallow enough to receive sunrays to support their living creatures fall into darkness and die. The rising seas also block photosynthesizing rays of light to local seagrasses and kill them. The reefs and seagrasses are important nurseries for sea life such as shrimp, zooplankton, and numerous fish species.

The rising earth temperatures also increase the levels of heat in the ocean itself. As the oceans' temperatures rise, carbon dioxide is trapped in the water and raises the pH level of the sea. The increased acidity of the ocean can harm fish and the vital zooplankton that all sea creatures rely on for a healthy food chain. Sadly, the ocean is not our only concern. Land creatures are even under attack by global warming.

Birds are migrating later and later in the season and are not flying as far south to find ice-free water for feeding, and this is creating a burden on local hunting and birding economies. The migratory birds are also essential to frail ecosystems that rely on the balance created by the birds when they feed on grasses and insects that may become nuisances if not balanced through natural means.

Land animals such as deer, caribou and elk are ranging farther north with each subsequent warming season. Ranging animals may move out of tribal lands; these tribes are dependent on the animals for seasonal signs to plant or harvest crops or use the animals for religious rituals. Without the animals' natural patterns, Native American tribes may lose vital aspects of their culture.

Global warming is a scary prospect. The effects of greenhouse gases and huge carbon footprints can mean the end of our world as we know it---a beautifully lush and species-diverse ecosystem. Global warming started with us; only humankind can reverse what we started.

Resources

• National Wildife Federation
• Target Global Warming: Sportsmans Guide to Global Warming
• Global Warming Kids: Global Warming for Kids