Climate change spells
trouble for far more than just the Arctic’s iconic predator, the polar bear. In
2016 scientists announced that the last Bramble Cay melomys, a ratlike rodent
found on one low-lying island in Australia’s Torres Strait, had vanished, the
victim of forces including rising seas. It’s being called the first documented
case of mammal being driven to extinction by climate change. More will surely
follow.
Rising temperatures are
depressing some plant and animal populations, driving species toward the poles,
shifting migrations and behaviour. Populations of Adelie penguins on the
Antarctic Peninsula have plumed. An Arctic shorebird called the red knot is
getting smaller. Ice loss is forcing walruses by the thousands onto land in
Alaska. Entire regions are being transformed: Alpine ecosystems from the
Rockies to the Swiss Alps are being squeezed off mountaintops. The exceptional
ocean warmth of the past few years has triggered coral bleaching and die-offs
at reefs around the world.
There will be winners. For
now, humpback whales are striving in newly ice-free waters off Antarctica. Sea urchins
too are proving to be resilient. But climate change isn’t the only threat that
spreading human populations impose on other species; we’re also fragmenting and
destroying natural habitats. Some species will adapt to the jarring changes in
their world – but how many, and for how long?
(Summarized from National Geography Magazine, April 2017)
Verdict: Plants,
animals and natural habitats are poorly affected by climate change
Lord, Give
Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)
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