What are the impacts of climate change - on furry, fluffy, green and scaly things?
Global warming could cause the extinction of many wild and wonderful plants and animals - as well as the habitats they depend on.
10 species under threat from climate change
- Too late: Costa Rica's golden toad has already become extinct due to changes in rainfall and temperature
- The Gelada baboon in Ethiopia. This monkey is rare and lives in isolated habitats vulnerable to climate change
- The monarch butterfly at its Mexican wintering grounds
- Tika (cute, hamster-sized animals). Climate change has contributed to local extinctions because the Tika lives at high altitude in the mountains in the USA
- Polar bears could become extinct by the end of this century as temperatures rise and the sea ice melts for longer periods
- The food stocks of the migrating caribou in Alaska are threatened
- Coral bleaching. This has risen dramatically over the past 20 years directly due to temperature rise
- The rare mountain pygmy possum of Australia which lives in remote areas susceptible to global warming
- Bengal tiger. The Sundarbans delta - the home of the tiger - is threatened by rising sea levels. If it goes, the Bengal tiger goes with it.
- The Adelie penguin in the Antarctic. Numbers are declining as the sea ice retreats plus their main food source, krill, is also affected - a double whammy indeed.
And it could lead to a few shocks and surprises closer to home too. In the UK we may see the disappearance of:
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our native bluebell woods
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trees like the birch and the cherry
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and even peas, pears and broad beans (though kids may not be quite so bothered about these - yet!)
Farewell to fish 'n' chips?
As well as problems of over-fishing, climate change is affecting North Sea cod. The plankton concentration in the North is reducing food stocks available for cod larvae.