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By: Selena Straughan '32
Introduction
Nowadays, with big and small economies all over the world, people are striving for wealth, even at very high costs. Because of the actions they take, even small ones, are affecting the planet's overall wellbeing and its animals inhabiting it. Here is how global warming and climate change is affecting the animals.
How does the heat affect the animals?
A quote from the National Park Service states, “Rising temperatures affect vegetation, food sources, access to water and much more. Ecosystems may become uninhabitable for certain animals, forcing wildlife to migrate outside of their usual patterns in search of food and livable conditions, while causing other animals to die off.”
Essentially, some of Earth’s habitats are becoming uninhabitable because of the rising temperatures being created partly by humans,
Because of heat rising from human manufacturing and other causes, animals are getting heat stress, which is when the animal’s body temperature rises because it can’t cope with the outside heat. Heat stress is bad for these animals because it overwhelms their systems that keep them cool.
To see exactly how much heat has been rising, to the right is a chart created by the Center for Data Innovation, which used collected data from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies to give a visual of the change in heat.
From this information, the change in heat on earth has risen 2.16°F. This increase in heat is very significant. Although it may seem small, in terms of Earth's atmosphere, it is a massive addition of heat that will circulate everywhere, especially causing harm to Earth’s animals.
An article from the weather channel ‘Heat Waves are Killing Wildlife’ states, “Extreme heat waves, driven by climate change, are resulting in mass animal die-offs, disrupting reproduction, and pushing wildlife toward extinction.”
What animals are being affected the most?
Many animals are being affected by global warming. According to an article by Sentient Climate, some animals are Polar Bears, Snow Leopards, Puffins, and Narwhals in the Arctic whose homes in the ice are melting. Some other animals are Orangatans, Pandas, and Sea Turtles, as well as many other animals.
Conclusion
All in all, our actions we take as humans may have a larger impact on Earth than we may think. Together, we take action, even small actions, like adopting ‘green’ transportation (walking and biking), using renewable energy, e.t.c. These actions will reduce our carbon footprint on this one Earth we got, because the animals deserve to live here as much as we do.
Thank you so much for reading this article. Climate change and global warming is a subject that is really important to me. I hope you enjoyed this article. Here are links to the sites I used. I would recommend looking at them if you would like to research more.
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