Climate is changing and the planet is getting warmer. Global warming is slowing spreading its adverse effects.

The affects of climate change aren’t going to be restricted to humans. Mammals, birds, fish are all going to be under threat as their habitats and climate alter.

The costs of global warming, in terms of wildlife, would be very high. Wildlife behaviour is changing rapidly. The most visible impact is in the form of earlier than normal breeding, egg-laying, nesting and flowering of plants and trees.

In St Tiggywinkles wildlife hospital in Buckinghamshire, large numbers of rabbits, grass snakes and other young animals are suffering from new ailment of being born at the wrong time.

Cold weather can either kill young animals or prompt them into hibernation, from which they do not awake because they lack sufficient fat reserves.

Baby birds, ducklings all are susceptible to abrupt cold spells. The mild winter is particularly confusing for hedgehogs. Baby hedgehogs generally born in the autumn. The weaker die in the beginning of heavy frosts, leaving the biggest to survive hibernation. Normally, handful of hedgehogs are seen between January and March. This year, there was a 40 per cent increase.

The global impact on different species are as following:

1. Migratory and breeding patterns of birds have been thrown into confusion across Europe. Chiff-chaffs are preferring to stay in UK throughout the year rather than migrating south.

2. Fish such as red mullet, once common only off Britain’s southerly coastline, are now frequent in further north, including the west coast of Scotland. Warm-water species like tuna are being increasingly spotted by Cornish fishermen.

3. Polar bears habitat and prey are at huge risk. Arctic sea ice is melting, while seals are at risk because of decline in fish stocks. Polar bears are getting thinner.

4. Breeding grounds for turtles on beaches in the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean are under threat from rising sea levels. As water temperature affects sex ratio, so warmer seas could cause some species to be entirely female.

5.
One study reports two-thirds of European butterflies have shifted their habitats north by between 20 and 150 miles

Several studies shows how global warming is affecting the wildlife.
Here are some:
LiveScience.com How Global Warming is Changing the Wild Kingdom

Wildlife Responses Climate Change

Climate Change: Caring For The Wild

The situation is even more critical than what it seems to be. Thank and courtesy to the political interference in the issue. For the last few years, ‘climate change’ has become one of the hottest issue in international politics. Climate Change Bill in UK is due to be published soon. But unnecessary delay in the preparation of the Bill only raises doubts about the Government’s vow to tackle global warming.
Not having too much faith on the bill, the opposition parties have stressed on carbon dioxide reductions. The target is to reduce UK’s carbon emission between 15 and 25 million tonnes by 2020.
(See chart on ‘Average Global Temperature and Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentrations, 1950-2001′)

However, unfortunately, some still believes that nature will solve the problem on its own.

Image Credit: BBC

Via: The Independent