People tend to argue with one another on whether climate change is existent or nonexistent.
Climate change is defined as “a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular, a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.”
The evidence that climate change does indeed exist does not just lay in the recent disturbance in the weather patterns the world has been being hit with, but also how it is affecting the animals and plants in the environment too.
Animals are being forced to change their behaviors due to the change in weather. For example, birds are nesting, breeding, and migrating earlier because spring is arriving sooner than it has in the past.
Polar bears are starving due to the rising temperatures of “the Arctic sea ice on which the animal’s hunt is progressively disappearing during the summer,” according to National Geographic.
The Green Sea Turtle is “very sensitive to temperature changes at all life stages— for example, the sex of baby turtles is determined by the temperature of the sand the eggs are laid in,” as told by World Wildlife Magazine.
Many people that are still oblivious to climate change tend to argue that we do not even need animals such as polar bears or sea turtles to survive, and that is where they are wrong.
If Polar Bears were to go extinct, the Seal population would rapidly increase, because Seals are the main prey for Polar bears. If the Seal population increases, then the Fish population will decrease at an alarming rate.
Green turtles tend to feed on seagrasses and seaweeds that grow on the ocean floor. Those seagrasses are home to other marine life like seahorses and also serve as breeding ground for fishes.
Seagrasses must be kept short to remain healthy. If sea turtles were to ever go extinct, the seagrasses would eventually die off and this would affect the marine life.
Polar Bears and Green Sea Turtles are just a couple of species that are being affected by climate change. There are many more species that have gone extinct or are at risk of going extinct due to the effects of climate change.
Riding a bike or walking to work cuts down on polluting from driving. Growing food rather than buying it, cut back on fossil fuels, unplug electronics when they are not in use, and buy and use reusable water bottles to cut down on plastic waste are all things that help to slow down climate change.
Everything has a cause and effect. If one plant or species were to go extinct then that would set off a chain reaction for another plant or species to go extinct and so on.
If people will not care about another species life, then maybe they will care about their own the next time they do something to contribute to climate change.
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