Endangered by Global Warming

by Deb Powers

It feels odd to be sitting here on a cool, rainy July morning preparing to write about how global warming endangers places and animals and crops. After all, the weather guy on Morning Joe just reported that this may go down as the coolest July on record in NYC - not a single day yet that's hit 89 F., he says. It's the sort of thing that could be ammunitition for the "global warming is a myth" crew if I didn't also know that it might also be the hottest summer on record out in Phoenix, AZ.

The fact is that the increase of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere has varied effects on the environment. Sea levels are rising worldwide, but faster in some places than others. Temperate zones are moving. So are the tropics. The frost line is creeping further up mountainsides, which has the effect of changing growing zones for many crops and inviting pests to move into areas where they've never been seen before. There are more "extreme weather events" and those weather events are more and more extreme.

And these extreme weather events, the slowly rising tides, the creeping of the temperature zones - all of these things are changing the world around us as we watch. Here are ten places, things and animals that are endangered by global warming. Which of them will you miss when they disappear?

Several species of Antarctic penguins are endangered as the polar ice caps melt. Their numbers have been decreasing over the past couple of decades as the warming destroys their natural habitat and nesting grounds.

The Great Barrier Reef and coral reefs in general are showing the results of stress due to global warming. Warming temperatures lead to an increase of non-coral organisms which disrupt the ecological balance. The most visible effect - coral bleaching, which literally turns the most colorful seascapes on Earth colorless and white.

In the Swiss Alps, ski resorts have resorted to buying snow making machines as the snow season has shortened considerably, and the amount of snow that falls during the season has decreased. Many glaciers are meltng at faster rates. Within a matter of decades, the entire landscape of the Swiss and Italian Alps could be drastically changed - and an economy based on skiing tourism will be destroyed if it cannot adapt.

Tuvalu is the smallest nation represented in the United Nations. With a population of only about 12,000, it is smaller than most U.S. cities. It is also watching its shores be submerged year by year at a rate that nearly guarantees that the vacation haven will be underwater within a few decades. 

Polar bears may not technically be on the endangered species list, but the changes that global warming has wreaked on their environment is definitive, and it's killing them. Polar bears are drowning at sea because they can't swim the distances between ice floes. Their habitat is shrinking as the polar ice caps melt.

Meet the pika - an adorable little mountain critter. He lives in the northwestern U.S. mountains, and can't really live anywhere else. About ten years back, the pika lived above about 5,000 feet above sea level. These days, he's moved about 3,000 feet higher into the mountains and he's running out of room to run.

Venice, the city of canals, romance and gondola boats, has been fighting rising seas throughout most of its existence. In recent years, the water level in the canals has been rising faster thanks to global warming. Technology helps, but much of the older city may be underwater in years to come.

Salamanders are joining the list of species endangered by global warming - and not just one type in one place. Salamanders are disappearing in Central Mexico, in the Himalayas and in California. In fact, amphibians like frogs and salamanders are especially sensitive to changes in environment. Say g'bye to frogs if we keep heating things up for them.

The Noah's Ark Project chronicles the damage sustained by European landmarks because of global warming. Increased rain, higher salt and changing climates are eroding stone monuments and rusting metal monuments like the Eiffel Tower. The result is that they are deteriorating faster and costing more to maintain.

The sacred ritual of bathing in the Ganges River in India may dry up along with the Ganges itself. The glacier that feeds the Ganges throughout the year is melting at the rate of 40 yards per year. At that rate, experts say, the glacier will disappear by 2030, and the Ganges River, lifeblood of its region, will become a seasonal river dependent on the monsoons.