Global warming and biodiversity - Research Paper Example

Final research assignment Humans have made tremendous advancements in all fields, but in the process they have degraded the surrounding environment and made way for potential environmental issues. Today, as we stand at the very zenith of modern technology, it is a shame that none of these technologies can help us contain the grave and growing environmental problems that we are facing today. In my research I have concentrated on two closely linked environmental challenges- Global warming and loss of biodiversity. Each of these issues is international, and if these are to be solved, each nation, small or big needs to make equal efforts to save the environment. In this assignment I shall discuss both the problems simultaneously, their causes and also analyze the efforts put in by different countries to solve these issues. Global warming is the increase in the temperatures throughout the world. This primarily happens owing to the increase in the amount of Green House gases in the atmosphere. These gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide etc) trap the sun’s incident heat energy and do not allow them to escape, thereby increasing the Earth’s temperature. These green house gases are released into the atmosphere because of human activities like pollution, burning of fossil fuels, deforestation etc. Global warming has negative impacts on all most everything, from ecosystems to individual species. Climate-carbon cycle feedbacks are also responsible for increasing the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In fact, studies have shown that rise of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere will increase the temperature which in turn will cause change in the process of photosynthesis, leading to death of the plants. GRAPH:1 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 The other challenge that forms the core of my discussion is extermination of both floral and faunal species. Species become extinct due to a number of reasons like deforestation, invasive species, diseases, changing climate etc. In fact in North America alone, “123 fresh water animal species have been recorded as extinct and hundreds of additional species of fishes, amphibians, mollusks and crayfishes are considered imperiled” (Riciardi & Rasmussen, 1998) and using this data in the exponential decay model, researchers Riciardi and Rasmussen have concluded that the extinction rate in North America alone is 4% per decade. Moreover, islands like the Galapagos or the Hawaiian islands are more vulnerable to species extinction because the presence of physical barriers has cut off gene flow which has in turn decreased adaptability of the species to extinction factors. Thus, endemic species are more vulnerable to extinction. There is a definitive connection between global warming and loss of biodiversity. Global warming is one of the key reasons behind species extinction.” Plants and animals, even far from human habitation, are now endangered due to global warming, resulting from increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere through different human activities” (Malcolm, 2006). A recent study showed that the increase in the temperature led to disease outbreaks caused by Batrachochytrium among the amphibian species in tropical America leading to extinction of 67% of the 110 species of Atelopus species (Pounds et al, 2006). Over the last century the temperature of the world has increased by 0.6 degree centigrade but most species have adapted themselves to it, but the present rate of temperature increment “could easily disrupt the connectedness among species and lead to a reformulation of species communities, reflecting differential changes in species, and to numerous extirpations and possibly extinctions.” (Root et al, 2003). Root et al, meta-analyzed 143 different studies and concluded that the shift in climate was leaving a fingerprint on animal as well as plant species. It is a common notion that environmental awareness and conservation efforts are restricted to the developed countries i.e. countries that have a stable economy and has enough financial resources to invest in environmental conservation plans, but the notion is true only up to a certain limit. The emerging and the developing countries do not have a stable economy and hence their efforts towards conservation issues may not be at par with that of the developed nations. However, studies have revealed that most emerging and developing countries will be affected economically owing to both global warming as well as biodiversity extermination. Most of these emerging and developing countries are situated in the tropical regions and have less adaptation capability when compared to developed nations and the gradual rise in the temperature owing to the impact of global warming will have a devastating effect on their agriculture thereby automatically affecting their economy as well. It has been reported that by 2080 a reduction in agricultural production will be seen due to baseline global warming. Global estimation shows that with carbon fertilization agriculture yield will be reduced by 3% whereas without it will be reduced by 16%.The individual increase and decrease in agriculture yield owing to global warming has been shown below: TABLE2 COUNTRY WITH CARBON FERTILIZATION WITHOUT CARBON FERTILIZATION United States +8% -6% Nigeria -6% -19% Russia +6% -8% India -30% -40% China +7% -7% Germany +12% -3% IPCC (Inter-governmental Panel on Climatic change) have reported that increase in the temperature by 1.5 – 2.5 degrees more, would put 25%- 30% plant species towards extinction. On the other hand many of these emerging or developing countries have numerous biological hotspots which need to be protected. Researchers stated that “resulting temperatures rises could potentially eliminate56, 000 plant and 3,700 endemic vertebrate species in the 25 hotspot regions” (Malcolm 2006). Developing countries like Brazil, Mexico, Peru, India etc are rich in biodiversity, which attracts tourists from all over the world and is a source of income. In case these species were to be lost, the economy dependent on tourism would crash. Environmental issues affect everyone equally and thus it cannot be the sole responsibility of just one nation to make conservation efforts since almost all countries inflict some form of damage or the other on the environment. According to a survey carried out in a number of countries to investigate which type of country- developed or non-developed was responsible for environmental issues, most of the citizens were not polarized in their opinion at all.” Residents of the highly industrialized nations tend to recognize their greater contribution to these problems, whereas residents of the less developed countries are likely to acknowledge a share of the blame” (Dunlap, 1994). There is an urgent need for an international action plan which needs to be implemented in all places with equal vigor. Developed countries have the stable economy to invest in conservation plans. Their economy allows them to be technologically advanced too. These modern technologies maybe used to implement efforts to solve environmental issues. On the other hand, both emerging and undeveloped countries are not competent to understand and solve the environmental issues all on their own. These countries are too engrossed in the endeavor to stabilize their economy to invest much into conservation plans. They require the help of international agencies, local bodies and other bodies to finance and successfully implement conservation plans. In a survey conducted in developing countries like India, Nigeria, Philippines, the citizens of these countries highly favored the support of international agencies on environmental issues (Dunlap, 1994). In the developed nations, most people are aware of the impacts of global warming and the need to protect species. However, illiteracy is prevalent among most undeveloped nation (both emerging and undeveloped) therefore they have little or no knowledge about environmental issues at all. Thus, it is important to make people aware of the causes and the consequences of environmental problems. Politics also plays a role in conservation issues. In developed countries with well formed government, environmental policies are made and implemented. But in the case of emerging or developing countries which have just started industrialization, the government is more focused on the issue of nation’s advancement rather than conservation. Since industrialization is the key to economic stability, undeveloped nations do not seriously implement conservation policies. However, now some international organizations have started working world wide to protect the environment. These organizations prepare strategies and implement those using local resources and have joined hands with local bodies to start conservation programs across the world. The TOCSIN project funded by EU has been started in China and India to examine ways to decrease green house gas emission. Both these rapidly developing countries have been the leading emitters of green house gases, therefore I believe that such projects implemented win collaboration with local agencies will yield some positive effects. Project TOCSIN also aims to establish technological collaboration so that the countries can embrace cleaner technologies. Similarly, another international project CarboAfrica project has been started by the European Commission to analyze and measure the amount of green house gases in the sub-Saharan region. The understanding and analyzing will help prepare strategies to limit emission of the gases in these regions. WWF is a well known body that aims to protect wildlife. Branches of WWF are present in almost all countries where volunteers participate in different projects and help protect vulnerable species. It is evident that all nations-developed, emerging and developing play an equal role in environmental issues. When it comes to addressing the environmental problems, several factors coalesce together and it is seen that the developed countries are more competent to handle and solve these problems over emerging and developing countries. But, it is also evident that citizens of almost all nations are somewhat aware of the problems and agree to the fact that the problems should be addressed. REFERENCES Cline, W. "Global Warming and Agriculture." Finance & Development (2008): 23-27. Print. Dunlap, R. "International Attitudes Towards Environment and Development." Helge Ole Bergesen and Georg Parmann (eds.), Green Globe Yearbook of International Co -operation on Environment and Development. Oxford: Oxford Press, 1994. Print. Malcolm, J., et al. "Global Warming and Extinctions of Endemic Species from Biodiversity Hotspots." Conservation Biology 20.2 (2006): 538-548. Web. Pounds, A., et al. "Widespread amphibian extinctions from epidemic disease driven by global warming." Nature 439 (2006): 161-165. Web. Riciardi, A., and J. Rasmussen. "Extinction rates of North American Freshwater Fauna."Conservation biology 13.5 (1999): 1220-1222. Web. Root, T. "Fingerprints of global warming on wild animals and plants." Letters to Nature421 (2003): 57-60. Print. 18 Feb. 2013. . Read More