Warming Climate Is Seriously Changing Life On A Global Scale
Pastor Dale Morgan
Warming Climate Is Seriously Changing Life On A Global Scale*
Changes include wastage of glaciers on all continents; melting
permafrost; earlier spring river runoff; and warming of water bodies.
Among living creatures inhabiting such systems, 90% of changes are
consistent with warming.
by Staff Writers
New York NY (SPX) May 19, 2008
A vast array of physical and biological systems across the earth are
being affected by warming temperatures caused by humans, says a new
analysis of information not previously assembled all in one spot.
The effects on living things include earlier leafing of trees and plants
over many regions; movements of species to higher latitudes and
altitudes in the northern hemisphere; changes in bird migrations in
Europe, North America and Australia; and shifting of the oceans'
plankton and fish from cold- to warm-adapted communities.
"Humans are influencing climate through increasing greenhouse gas
emissions, and the warming world is causing impacts on physical and
biological systems attributable at the global scale," said lead author
Cynthia Rosenzweig, a scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space
Studies and the Columbia Center for Climate Systems Research. Both are
affiliates of The Earth Institute at Columbia University.
Rosenzweig and researchers from 10 other institutions across the world
analyzed data from published papers on 829 physical systems and some
28,800 plant and animal systems, stretching back to 1970. Their analysis
of revealed a picture of changes on continental scales; previous studies
had looked mainly at single phenomena, or smaller areas. In physical
systems, 95% of observed changes are consistent with warming trends.
These include wastage of glaciers on all continents; melting permafrost;
earlier spring river runoff; and warming of water bodies. Among living
creatures inhabiting such systems, 90% of changes are consistent with
warming.
The researchers say it is unlikely that any force but human-influenced
climate change could be driving all this; factors like deforestation or
natural climate variations could not explain it. Their work builds upon
the consensus of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which in
2007 declared manmade climate warming "likely" to have discernible
effects on biological and physical systems.
"It was a real challenge to separate the influence of human-caused
temperature increases from natural climate variations or other
confounding factors, such as land-use changes or pollution," said
coauthor David Karoly, a climate scientist at the University of
Melbourne in Victoria, Australia.
"This was possible only through the combined efforts of our
multi-disciplinary team, which examined observed changes in many
different systems around the globe, as well as global climate model
simulations of temperature changes."
The data showing the patterns of change are strongest in North America,
Asia and Europe--mainly because far more studies have been done there,
said Rosenzweig. On the other continents, including South America,
Australia and Africa, documentation of changes in physical and
biological systems is sparse, even though there is good evidence there
of human-influenced warming itself.
The authors say that there is an urgent need to study these
environmental systems, especially in tropical and subtropical areas.