How has climate change impacted wildlife already?
We know from popular images that surround the internet sites that animals such as Polar Bears have been heavily impacted within their habitats due to climate change. But are we doing anything to save them? Do we look further into other wildlife rather than just seeing a picture of a polar bear in a soon-to-be destroyed habitat?
Global warming is responsible for shrinking ice caps, forest fires and droughts. Additionally, the smallest changes in climate change affect hugely innocent animals, that don’t harm humans in any way. The human impact is the actual cause of something that can visibly be targeted as an irreversible factor, and in addition to that we are now submerging animals in this problematic.
Focusing on animals, there’s not much they can do, and what is most depressing is that they have no idea of what could be possibly happening to their habitat. Animals rely on their environment to survive and so do humans, but because of how advanced our communities, economies, and industries are, we forget that we need the planet that we are currently destroying. But animals don’t have the capacity to do all of this, so they are immensely affected.
Moving on to some threats to Wildlife include:
- The loss of wetlands, which lead to drier conditions due to higher temperatures.
- Sea level rise, that inundates habitats, beaches and marshes and cause erosion.
- Invasive species and disease, which usually take advantage of weakened species.
Lastly, what can we do after all of this?
There are still a few things that we can do to
help this wildlife survive even if it’s just a little bit longer. We can start by protecting forests, keeping the nature where it belongs and taking care of what it has to offer. As well as reducing your daily waste, like the use of plastic in hope for the habitat of some of this animals gets a longer lifetime, because if natural areas are so significantly impacted by climate change, even local plants and animals will recede or die off. This could ultimately impact the entire food chain, causing a mass extinction of species on a global scale.
Catherine Simmonds C., Step 11
