Sadly this is just a tiny sample of the species facing extinction. As you read through their plights a common thread emerges – the cause of their demise is related to climate change and global warming.
We need to focus on protecting all species, including us humans, by identifying and reducing the sources of global warming.
Warm Heart has focused our efforts on reducing agricultural smoke, one of the major sources. We have a solution. ‘
Their Plight Coral Reefs these days are not only suffering the hammer-blows of catastrophic bleaching events. They’re also being subjected to a slow, vise-like squeezing, as our carbon emissions steadily increase the background temperature and acidity of the water around them to levels that most corals haven’t encountered before. Source Reduce Global Warming Sources Agricultural smoke…
Their Plight These Antarctic birds mostly live on tiny crustaceans called krill. Krill live on the undersides of ice sheets, where they find refuge and algae as food. But as Antarctic sea ice retreats, krill populations are falling—meaning that the penguins have to migrate farther to find food. Spending a lot more energy to find…
Their Plight Climate change is an additional, rapidly emerging threat to marine turtles globally. Rising sea levels and extreme weather events wash nests away and decrease nesting habitat. In sea turtles, sand temperature determines the gender of developing young – warmer eggs turn into females, cooler eggs turn into males. Under global warming, turtle sex…
Their Plight The majestic Polar Bear, a flagship for climate change awareness, is facing an uncertain future due to dwindling sea ice in its Arctic habitat. Longer, warmer summers are causing much of the Arctic Ocean to be ice-free for extended periods of time, decreasing the bears’ access to their primary prey – seals. Consequently,…
Their Plight The Koala, Australia’s most iconic fluffy marsupial, is likely to become rarer over the next century due to global warming. Koalas have an extremely specialized diet consisting only of eucalyptus leaves. Increasing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are decreasing the nutritional value of leaves, resulting in Koala malnutrition and starvation. Longer and…
Their Plight A number of traits make them vulnerable to a changing climate, including a declining population size, sensitivity to high temperatures, invasive plant species outcompeting their regular food sources, and susceptibility to disease. Asian elephants also have a low adaptive capacity due to a limited dispersal ability (stemming from increasing habitat fragmentation), a long…
Their Plight Many of the predicted consequences of climate change, such as increasing temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns and more erratic or extreme weather events, will have impacts on pollinator populations. Some of these changes could affect pollinators individually and ultimately their communities, becoming reflected in higher extinction rates of pollinator species. Source Reduce Global Warming…
Their Plight Like most butterflies, monarchs are highly sensitive to weather and climate: They depend on environmental cues (temperature in particular) to trigger reproduction, migration, and hibernation. Their dependence on milkweed alone as a host plant is a further vulnerability, particularly as milkweed abundance is declining throughout the monarch range. They also face a decline…
