What are the Impacts? | Animals

A quarter of all animals on our planet could be wiped out in our lifetime because of climate change.

The world’s habitats and ecosystems are at risk and any rapid changes can seriously endanger animals and even lead to extiction. Birds, fish, and land-based animals are all going to be under threat as their environments and climates alter.

Polar Bears
Climate change is having a huge impact on polar bears and they are one of the most endangered animals on the planet. Bears need the ice to feed. They break a hole in the ice and wait motionless (sometimes for hours!) for seals to come up for air and then catch them for their dinner. But now ice sheets are melting earlier and forming later each year, and the hunting season is becoming shorter. Polar bears already go nearly six months without food and if they have to wait longer, they will starve. And with fewer ice sheets for the polar bears to swim between thay can even drown trying to find somewhere to rest.

Penguins
Penguins are another species superbly adapted to live in freezing climates! But over the past 50 years, the population of Antarctic emperor penguins has already declined by 50 percent.

Penguins feed on tiny sea creatures called krill from under the ice shelves and less ice means less krill and less food for the penguins. Without their staple diet the penguins die.

Emperor penguins also nest directly on the Antartic sea ice and earlier thaws could endanger their chicks.

Sea turtles
Sea turtles are already threatened by many factors including poaching, pollution, development of beach resorts and fishing - they can meet a cruel end when they get stuck in nets or on hooks. But now they are at the forefront of another battle - climate change. Many turtle species return to the exact beaches where they were hatched to lay their eggs for the next generation of turtles. But rising sea levels are eating away at these beaches and threatening their habitats. Hotter summers also mean higher sand temperatures making it harder for turtles to make their nests and also preventing some eggs from hatching. Warmer ocean temperatures can also damage coral reefs which are essential feeding grounds for turtles.

Bengal tiger
The Sundarbans delta, India is also threatened by rising sea levels. Coastal erosion caused by global warming is steadily shrinking this habitat and threatening the survival of the Bengal tigers. And as sea levels rise, the mangrove plants have been overexposed to salt water. They have lost their red and green colours and are more like bare twigs, exposing tigers to poachers who hunt them for their skin and bones.

None of this is good news for an animal which is already declining in numbers fast.