How Global Warming Affects Animals & People
"All across the world ... increasingly dangerous weather patterns and devastating storms are abruptly putting an end to the long-running debate over whether or not climate change is real. Not only is it real, it's here, and its effects are giving rise to a frighteningly new global phenomenon: the man-made natural disaster." Barack Obama, April 3, 2006. Though the effects of global warming are somewhat intangible, we are becoming increasingly aware that they have serious and irreparable consequences on both the human world and the animal kingdom. Warmer temperatures wreak havoc with ecosystems, create extreme weather patterns, encourage pollution and lead to the death of humans and entire animal species.
Other People Are Reading
-
Decline in Human Health
-
Warmer temperatures are likely to result in longer, more frequent heat waves such as that in Russia in 2010 that, as reported by the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), led to the death of more than 15,000 people and that in Europe in 2003, that according to the BBC, led to the death of approximately 20,000 people. Further, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that at least 150,000 extra deaths a year are caused by climate change -- a figure that it says will double by 2030. Rising temperatures could also attract mosquitoes to previously unaffected areas and result in outbreaks of malaria, dengue fever and other potentially deadly infections.
Animal Migration and Changing Ecosystems
-
Alongside the change in the weather patterns comes a change in animal migratory patterns. According to National Geographic Magazine, some butterflies, foxes and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas, and spruce bark beetles have flourished in Alaska as a result of decades of warm summers. The bark beetles already have decimated 4 million acres of spruce trees. With the delicate balance of ecosystems disturbed, the U.N. Environment Program predicts 25 percent of the Earth's mammals and 12 percent of the bird species will be extinct within the next 30 years.
-
Additional Deadly Natural Disasters
-
Beginning with Hurricane Katrina in the city of New Orleans in 2005 the world has been ravaged by a number of natural disasters. From the California wildfires of 2007 to Afghanistan's 2008 blizzard to Iceland's Grimvostn Volcano erupting in 2010 after 200 dormant years to Australia's floods, New Zealand's earthquake and Japan's tsunami of 2011, the world is an increasingly precarious place for humans and animals to inhabit. Armageddon Online claims that millions of lives have been taken natural disasters. Barbara Stocking at Oxfam claims the frequency and intensity of these occurrences likely will continue to increase as global warming takes hold on the world.
Agriculture and Food Production
-
As the global temperature increases worldwide, some plant species that are relied upon to feed both the human and animal populations will struggle to survive and die off. This food source may affect an entire species of animal dependent on a particular strain of plant or grain and also affect the success of agriculture throughout the world. This can also be said of the increased salinity of the ocean due to increased evaporation and reduced rainfall in a large stretch of water between Africa and the Caribbean in recent years. Sea creatures such as fish may not survive in saltier water, and cultures such as those in Southeast Asia that depend on fish as a staple in their diet may have to find alternative food sources.
-
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Comstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images
