impacts > ecosystems >
Wildlife
In this section, you will learn about climate change impacts
Human activities such as burning fossil fuels, using nitrogen-based fertilizers and cutting down forests release greenhouse gases. Climate changing emissions trap heat in our atmosphere, altering long-term weather patterns, or climate. Where rains once fell, there is drought. Where ice covered the seas, water is open. Climate change seems to alter the very cycle of Earth's seasons.
Our actions impact any living thing affected by weather. Which, of course, means just about everything. From penguins in New Zealand to polar bears in Manitoba, wildlife all over the world are struggling to keep up with our rapidly changing climate. Over time, animals are often capable of adapting to new conditions. However, the process climate change is too fast for some animals to adjust.
At the end of the Triassic, increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and global warming are believed to have caused one of the largest mass-extinction events in Earth's history (1). |
