Migratory species (e.g. birds and turtles) develop their patterns patterns over thousands of years. Our changes to the global environment through carbon emissions are leading to changes in temperature over an extremely short timescale -- the next 25 to 50 years.
- For turtles, higher temperatures affect the ratio of female to male eggs. Some turtles also become more prone to cancer as the waters warm.
- One-fifth of bird species are threatened by climate-related impacts including rising sea levels, coastal erosion and more vigorous storms that literally blow them off course
- The North Atlantic right whale's food -- plankton -- is disturbed by shifting ocean currents
We're changing the global ecosystem, and it will lead to many species not being able to adapt in time.
We'd be pretty pissed off if whales were making humans extinct. Bush would declare a war on whale terror. You're either with the belugas or against the belugas.
Instead, we just blunder on as a species, convincing ourselves that we have "dominion over the earth", and ruining the globe for everything else.
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