Climate Change Affects Biodiversity

According to an article wrote by Anup Shah in Globalissues.org, one of the most important impacts of climate changes is the way it is affecting biodiversity. This issue has not only an impact on animals and plants, it has also some risks for human security, such as an alteration in the food chain upon which we depend, a change in the water sources and the disappearance of some plants that are used to make medicines and other resources we rely on. 

But the impact on biodiversity is extremely important and it is causing dire consequences that are going to increase in the coming decades. The Secretariat of the Convention of Biological Diversity explained in the UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook 3, celebrated in May 2010, that:

Loss of Arctic sea ice threatens biodiversity across an entire biome and beyond. The related pressure of ocean acidification, resulting from higher concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, is also already being observed. […] In addition to warming temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events and changing patterns of rainfall and drought can be expected to have significant impacts on biodiversity.

One of the examples the author focuses on is the impact on biodiversity in The Arctic, a place that have had the highest rates of warming. 

As the article explains, the only problem is not the reduction in the extent of sea ice, it is also its thickness and age. When the Arctic has less ice, it has a less reflective surface, which causes a more rapid melting.

There is also an impact on the species adapted to the environment. Not only the polar bear is affected, but also the algae that grow under the ice, the invertebrates, the birds, and the fish and marine mammals. All of them are in risk and can disappear in the next decades. 

The reason why I have chosen this subject is because this issue, in my opinion, is one of the most important that we are living. I am worried about the climate change, but also about the impact it has on animals and plants. Some time ago, I watched a documentary in the TV that talked about poles melting and its impact on polar bears. I knew that there was a problem with that, but watching it in action was shocking. I know that there is not a magic formula to eradicate this issue, but there are some ways to reduce it and we should have them in mind and practise them. People probably don’t pay much attention to climate change because it is not an immediate problem that is affecting to us, but it is a problem that can have an awful end.