Global warming is dangerous to all living things
When we talk about the effects of global warming, we often concentrate on the impacts on human life. But dozens of recent scientific studies show that all life on earth has and continues to be affected by global warming. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), temperatures have increased by 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit or 0.8 degrees Celsius in the past century. This might seem like a very small change, but it has already caused major disruptions in the ecosystem. The study in the journal of science established that these changes have interrupted approximately 82%% of ecological processes.
The effects of global warming extend to land, oceans, and freshwater environments threatening both the life, habitat, and species of all living organisms on earth. Due to the increasing temperatures, sea levels are rising, oceans are becoming warmer, more intense and prolonged droughts and floods threaten both human, crops, wildlife, and aquatic life. Even with the seemingly slight changes in global temperature, major impacts can already be felt. These impacts range from changes in genetic compositions, significant changes in migration patterns, changes in physiology, and physical features such as body size, color, and shape.
And some species have already begun adapting to survive these new changes. Animals like butterflies are changing in color because the dark-colored butterflies heat much faster than the light-colored butterflies, a vital survival feature in the warmer temperatures. Other animals like Salamanders in North America and cold-water fish have reduced their body size by almost 10% because small and energetic bodies have an edge when temperatures increase. These and numerous other animals are forced to regulate their bodies in response to climate changes.
While such animals are able to respond and change according to temperature changes, other species that are not able to do so are impacted in more serious ways. For instance, the cold-loving kelp forest of Japan, Southern Australia, and the US have collapsed due to warming, their reestablishment halted and replaced by species that are better adapted to warmer regions.
Human life has not been spared either. Excess precipitation causes flooding that affects thousands of people each year. Declines in natural systems like mangroves and rivers mean more trouble for us. The same disruptions in nature destroy the lives of animals, crops, and fisheries that humans depend on for food. What is more worrying is that all these have happened over a slight increase in global temperature of just 1.5 degrees Celsius. The forecasted increase in global temperature with about 2-3 degrees in the next century will mean even more trouble for humans and all living things on earth.
Gomi, Tadashi, Masami Nagasaka, Takeshi Fukuda, and Hideharu Hagihara. “Shifting of the life cycle and life‐history traits of the fall webworm in relation to climate change.” Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata 125, no. 2 (2007): 179-184.
Pacifici, Michela, Piero Visconti, Stuart HM Butchart, James EM Watson, Francesca M. Cassola, and Carlo Rondinini. “Species’ traits influenced their response to recent climate change.” Nature Climate Change 7, no. 3 (2017): 205-208.
Schleuning, Matthias, Eike Lena Neuschulz, Jörg Albrecht, Irene MA Bender, Diana E. Bowler, D. Matthias Dehling, Susanne A. Fritz et al. “Trait-based assessments of climate-change impacts on interacting species.” Trends in Ecology & Evolution 35, no. 4 (2020): 319-328.

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