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[BIODIVERSITY] How Climate Change is Threatening Biodiversity |
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by Yvonne Wabai | 31-05-2019 05:13
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Biodiversity is the variey of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is considered to be important and desirable. Climate change refers to a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns that lasts for an extended period of at least 30 years. The changing of climate throughout the years is normal, however, what is of concern is the man-made climate change which is caused by an increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and other human activities. As a result of man-made climate change, countries all over the world have begun experiencing extreme weather phenomena such as heat waves, typhoons, hailstorms, floods, and droughts more frequently and with at a higher intensity than usual. In turn, these weather phenomena have affected many different sectors of the economy and our lives. One of those sectors is biodiversity.
Using Kenya as an example, in the last couple of years, Kenya has seen experienced a pattern of lengthy periods of extreme droughts followed by devastating floods. During the droughts, plants dried up and died due to dehydration. This affected out food security. Animals, domestic and wild, died as well due to dehydration and starvation. There were people who died as well due to dehydration and starvation. During the floods, plants were unable to grow because the ground was too water-logged. Again, this affected our food security. Animals, both domestic and wild, were washed away by the flood waters, as were people. Another effect of this is that there is increased conflict between people and wild animals as the two groups are increasingly finding themselves in the same vicinities as they look for food and water. There was outrage some time back when wardens killed a lion instead of tranquillising it - the lion had ventured into traffic by accident. Elephants have been killed by villages - who then ate them because they were hungry - after they tresspassed through the village and farms on the while looking for food. There was even a case of a leopard sneaking into goat pens and eating the goats. This is not good because tourism is a big part of Kenya's economy. It is a big earner. It is no good if our wild animals die, for whatever reason. The annual wildebeest migration, one of the 7 wonders of the modern world, occurs in Kenya and Tanzania where the wildebeest migrate between Maasai Mara in Kenya and Serengeti in Tanzania in cycles. It is a really big thing and all the wildebeests migrate all at once - the event of the season. This is what made Maasai Mara and Serengeti so famous. Tourists come in droves to see this happen, and this helps our economy. Unfortunately, due to the change in rainfall patterns as a result of climate change, the wildebeest migration has been negatively affected. Additionally, since the rains now come in the forms of floods after a period of drought, the wildebeests are in danger of drowning as they cross the River Mara. If the wildebeests can't migrate, they cannot breed as they normally do and they may very well eventually die out. Scientists recently wanred that over 1 million species in the world are in danger of extinction due to climate change. Grevy's zebra are in danger of extinction in Kenya. Giraffe have been put on the list of endangered animals. Honey bees are going extinct, which means that the world is at risk of losing 70% of its food crops because it is mostly the honey bee that pollinates them. The situation is critical. What plants or animals are endangered in your country?
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Previous : BIODIVERSITY
6 Comments
Hello Yvonne
Thank you for your report about how climate change is affecting biodiversity
Green Cheers from Nepal :)
Keep writing great reports.
We are eager to read more reports from you.
Regards,
Kushal Naharki
Posted 17-06-2019 04:57
Hi Yvonne,
Thank you for your efforts that you've put into this report. This report is impressive in a sense that you actually connected climate change with biodiversity. I believe climate change can have enormous impact on biodiversity because some animals can only live under specific conditions yet, climate change is rapidly changing the way of lives that animals were use to use. I sincerely hope that some helpful and practical measures can be implemented to minimize the impact. Great work.
Louis Mentor
Posted 31-05-2019 23:51
Hello Yvonne
Thank you for such a detailed article on the relationship between climate change and biodiversity. The negative consequences of climate change include destroying biodiversity. As climate changes can worsen the natural disasters like drought and floods, wildlife??s habitats have become more susceptible to natural disasters. Thank you for pointing out this issue with examples in Kenya. In Korea, tigers and foxes are endangered. Thank you for sharing this report with us!
Wonhee Mentor
Posted 31-05-2019 19:41
Hi Yvonne!
I hope you are well! I had also reported on similar report of how the number of species are dwindling in our current time. It is so unfortunate that the tourism was suffered because of how the species have been suffering with climate change and the subsequent killings of animals.
In my county, 'South Africa' we has the Cape Vulture, African Wild dog (painted dog), Blue crane, and the Riverine rabbit just to name a few.
Thank you for putting forward such a though provoking report! I look forward to the next report!
Yours sincerely,
Rosa
Posted 31-05-2019 15:55
Hello Yvonne
Kenya has been suffering a lot and now many other nations are in the position of Kenya.
The condition must be improved as soon as possible. It??s biggest threat worldwide.
Thank you so much for this report
Green cheers
Posted 31-05-2019 13:24
Greetings Yvonne,
This is a very detailed article explaining about the current situation in Kenya.
Surely, climate change has severely impacted the ablity of animals to survive which has impacted humans in many negative ways.
We hope that measures can be taken soon to mitigate the effect of man-made climate change. Please keep us updated on this matter.
Sincerely,
Eco Generation
Posted 31-05-2019 10:20