Climate Change Impacting Entire Ecosystems, Society And Every Aspect Of Life On Earth

The human-induced climate change impacted every aspect of life on Earth that includes the whole ecosystems and society, according to a new study. This will generate erratic consequences for humans living on the planet Earth.

The findings of the study were published in the journal Science. It was led by researchers from Wildlife Conservation Society. They discovered that about 80 percent of the 94 ecological processes that fashion the foundation for healthy marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems already indicates danger and reaction to climate change. These have impacts to human such as disease outbreaks, pests, reduced productivity in fisheries, decreasing agriculture yield and pests, according to Science Daily.

Dr. Brett Scheffers from the University of Florida and the lead author of the study explained that there is now clear evidence that, with only a ~1 degree Celsius of warming globally, very major impacts are already being felt. He further explained that the genes are changing, species' physiology and physical features such as body size are changing, species are rapidly moving to keep track of suitable climate space and there are now signs of whole ecosystems under stress.

Meanwhile, James Watson from the University of Queensland in Australia and the co-author of the study said that some people did not expect this level of change for decades. He added that the impacts of climate change are being felt with no ecosystem on Earth being spared.

For example, many species are exhibiting changes in their body size in response to climate change. The temperate plants are flowering earlier in spring and the animals have changed the timing of their migrations. Several species have shifted their distributions and some species have changed their sex ratios, according to Mongabay.

The study emphasizes the significance of the role of large and healthy natural ecosystems that would act as repositories for carbon to fight these negative effects of climate change. These ecosystems can defend and regulate local climate regimes and allow species that includes human populations to respond and adapt to climate change, as revealed by researchers. They added that policymakers and politicians must accept the impacts of climate change and take steps to stop the greenhouse gas emissions.