The Driving Force of Climate Change

Over the next set of posts I would like to turn my attention to the issues of climate change and anthropogenic global warming and look the ways in which the concept of refugial areas might be key to solving some of the associated problems facing plant and animal species. So, to start off with, I've found some nice news articles that focus on species responses to global warming, enjoy! I'm sure there are plenty of academic articles that concentrate on the impact of climate change on plant and animal communities but as it's something that has often been in the news in the past few years, I thought it would be interesting to see how the media has looked at the issue. Plus, I think a break from academic journal articles will probably be much appreciated!

Source click here

The first article is from The Guardian a couple of months ago and it highlights the alarming rate at which climate change is driving species out of their habitats. The little guy in the picture is a Cetti's Warbler and this bird species has shifted its range 150km Northwards in the last 40 years in response to warming climatic conditions! This is behaviour is not unique to the Cetti's Warbler, many species of birds, insects and other animals are responding to global warming by moving regions. Scientists had predicted this response, however, many had not expected it to be quite this rapid (up to 3x as fast as predicted in some cases). Click here to have a read of the full article.