Climate Change and Biodiversity
Climate Change and Biodiversity
How Global Warming Affects the Life on Earth
Climate change is the changing of patterns in climate, and the most obvious changes are usually the average temperature and the average precipitation. Climate change will also affect the timing of seasons, as well as causing extreme events to happen, for example, drought, fire, hurricane, etc. Since climate is defined as a certain region’s long term atmospheric conditions, the change of climate will have a great impact on the biodiversity. Biodiversity is the different forms of life in various ecosystems. Each population in an ecosystem has a range of tolerance to the changes in their surrounding areas, some of the populations have a larger range and some of them have a smaller range. The size of the range depends on their adaption to new environments and new food sources. If the changes are not within the range of tolerance, the population will not be able to survive (5). As the human population is growing and our living standard is getting higher and higher, newer technology has been introduced to the society, but also because of that, a lot of pollutants were created, for instance, carbon dioxide, which is the main component of greenhouse gases that leads to global warming, a serious matter that is gradually changing the earth’s climate. It is important to know that the climate change that is caused by global warming is a worldwide issue, regardless of where the populations are, the changes will still have a certain negative impact on them.
So what exactly is global warming? The earth is surrounded by a thin layer of atmosphere. It traps part of the radiations from the Sun, and reflects the rest. The layer plays a role in regulating the temperature of the Earth, and makes it a comfortable place for us to live in. Global warming is caused by the increase of greenhouse gases that are created by human activities, this result in thickening the layer of atmosphere. A thickened layer
How Global Warming Affects the Life on Earth
Climate change is the changing of patterns in climate, and the most obvious changes are usually the average temperature and the average precipitation. Climate change will also affect the timing of seasons, as well as causing extreme events to happen, for example, drought, fire, hurricane, etc. Since climate is defined as a certain region’s long term atmospheric conditions, the change of climate will have a great impact on the biodiversity. Biodiversity is the different forms of life in various ecosystems. Each population in an ecosystem has a range of tolerance to the changes in their surrounding areas, some of the populations have a larger range and some of them have a smaller range. The size of the range depends on their adaption to new environments and new food sources. If the changes are not within the range of tolerance, the population will not be able to survive (5). As the human population is growing and our living standard is getting higher and higher, newer technology has been introduced to the society, but also because of that, a lot of pollutants were created, for instance, carbon dioxide, which is the main component of greenhouse gases that leads to global warming, a serious matter that is gradually changing the earth’s climate. It is important to know that the climate change that is caused by global warming is a worldwide issue, regardless of where the populations are, the changes will still have a certain negative impact on them.
So what exactly is global warming? The earth is surrounded by a thin layer of atmosphere. It traps part of the radiations from the Sun, and reflects the rest. The layer plays a role in regulating the temperature of the Earth, and makes it a comfortable place for us to live in. Global warming is caused by the increase of greenhouse gases that are created by human activities, this result in thickening the layer of atmosphere. A thickened layer
Bibliography: 1. Al Gore. (2006). An Inconvenient Truth. New York. Rodale. 2. Delingpole, James. Polar bears in danger? Is this some kind of joke? The Times. November 12, 2007. <http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article2852551.ece> 3 5. Miller, T.G., Jr. & Hackett, Dave. (2005). Living in the Environment: First Canadian Edition. Toronto: Nelson Education. Sources: IPCC Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, Summary for Policymakers (2007), p11 Figure 2: Changes in Temperatures, Sea Level and Snow Cover between 1850 and 2010 Source: ACIA Impacts of a Warming Arctic: Arctic Climate Impact Assessment (2004), Key Finding #1, p.25