Researches have warned that most life on Earth is already being changed by the warming climate, even though the rise in global temperature since pre-industrial times has been rather slight.
A new study in the journal Science has found that 82% of key ecological processes – including genetic diversity and migration patterns – are being altered by global warming.
These effects extend to land, oceans and freshwater environments, even though temperatures have risen just about 1.87 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) over pre-industrial times due to fossil fuel burning.
“We now have evidence that, with only about one degree Celsius of warming globally, major impacts are already being felt,” says lead study author Brett Scheffers, member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature Climate Change Specialist Group and assistant professor at the University of Florida.
“These range from individual genes changing, significant shifts in species’ physiology and physical features such as body size, and species moving to entirely new areas.”
These changes will affect humans by causing disease outbreaks, inconsistent crop yields and cutting down on fishery productivity, threatening food security, experts fear.
The study also warns that the more ecosystems change, the less likely they may be to guard against the harshest effects of climate change.
Unhealthy forests will no longer be able to sequester large amounts of carbon, for instance. Increasingly warm oceans will no longer act as an effective buffer against temperature rise and climate-related floods, sea-level rise and cyclones will get worse.
Since people depend on healthy ecosystems for food and clean water, the more the natural environment changes, the more people’s livelihoods will be at risk.
This means that “it is no longer sensible to consider this a concern for the future, and if we don’t act quickly to curb emissions it is likely that every ecosystem across Earth will fundamentally change in our lifetimes”, as the study points out.
So it is of vital importance that the global fight against climate change goes on without any let-up.
But there is some concern for the future of the fight against global warming among scientists after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.
Negotiators and advocates gathered for UN-sponsored climate talks in Marrakesh, Morocco, are unsure what to expect from a man who once dismissed global warming as a lie concocted by China.
Some warn that the US would cease promoting renewable energy at its own peril, allowing countries like India and Brazil to gain a headstart on the market. Others say it will leave the American people vulnerable to climate catastrophes.
In any case, scientists warn that the window for capping greenhouse gas emissions is closing.
The Paris Agreement adopted in December, which pledges to keep global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius, became international law just before the Marrakesh talks began.
Many advocates, however, hope that the global momentum triggered by the accord will not be swayed by any one country.