Animals: The True Victims of Climate Change?

<span property="schema:name">Animals: The True Victims of Climate Change?</span>
IMAGE CREDIT:  Polar Bear

Animals: The True Victims of Climate Change?

    • Author Name
      Lydia Abedeen
    • Author Twitter Handle
      @lydia_abedeen

    Full story (ONLY use the 'Paste From Word' button to safely copy and paste text from a Word doc)

    The Story

    Think “climate change”, and one immediately thinks of melting glaciers, photochemical Californian sunsets, or even the denunciation of the issue by some politicians. However, among scientific circles, one thing is unanimous: climate change is (slowly, but surely) destroying our world. However, what does that say for the native inhabitants of the environments we exploit, Earth's animals?

    Why it’s Important

    This one speaks for itself, doesn’t it?

    With the destruction of some of Earth’s natural habitats, the ecosystems of thousands of living organisms would be completely devastated. Those melting ice caps would result not only in increased flooding, but hundreds of homeless polar bears, as well. The notorious Californian sunsets have known to upset the hibernation cycles of many a species of local frogs, causing premature deaths and resulting in more and more additions to the endangered species list, an example being the honeybee, which was added only a few months ago.

    Thus, it isn’t surprising that many environmentalists are initiating studies in order to combat this “silent killer”.

    In an interview with Daily News, Lea Hannah, a conservation ecologist and senior researcher at Conservation International, a non-profit based in Arlington, Virginia, says, “We have the knowledge to take action…Truly massive climate-triggered insect outbreaks have killed millions of trees in North America. Heat flashes in the oceans have killed corals and changed coral reefs in every ocean.” Hannah then goes on to state that a third of all species may be at risk for extinction in the near future.
    Obviously, the situation is dire; negativity finds us at every turn. So one can only wonder: what’s next?

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