last updated 17th January 06
By Mahesh Menon, Hi-Tech-Editorial Division

More than 800 wildlife species in the global warming hit list

About 251 million years ago, nearly 95% of the species that Earth was blessed with were wiped out due to a six-degree Celsius increase in the global temperature. This mass extinction or the "Great Dying" was the effect of a "runaway greenhouse effect" caused by an increase in carbon dioxide resulting from huge volcanic eruptions.

Today's greenhouse emissions owe nothing to volcanic epidemics. Industrial emissions, car fumes, to name a few have led to atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide trapping the heat energy radiated by the sun and Earth warms up. Global warming is thus surely, slowly, and steadily squeezing the life out of Earth's wildlife.

The lifecycle of all species are dependent on factors like temperature, climate zones, etc. However, with these primary factors changing at a rapid rate due to global warming, plants and animals are finding it increasingly difficult to adapt.

Seasons too have changed. The upshot -acceleration in migration, plants flowering earlier, ice caps in the Arctic and the Antarctic melting sooner than you can say, 'freeze'. Atmospheric as well as seawater temperature have gone up considerably.

If things proceed at this rate, there is no doubt that the polar bear, Arctic fox, and Adelie penguins will go the way of the Golden Toad, commonly believed to be the first victim of global warming.

Scientists have projected that there will be a three-degree Celsius rise in the global temperature in the next 60 years or so, which will probably wipe out a third of the wildlife in the world's most ecologically sensitive areas.

It is estimated that an additional three plant or animal species are becoming extinct every hour. The World Resources Institute estimates that about 100 species become extinct every day due to tropical deforestation and global warming. Around 50,000 species are estimated to be wiped out each year from the face of the earth. Currently, more than 800 wildlife species have found their place in the global warming hit list.

If this scenario prevails, there is no doubt that more wildlife will be found in museums rather than in real life or zoos. If we as responsible inhabitants of Earth don't act soon, history is bound to repeat itself- wiping out the maximum number of species from the face of the earth in just a blink of the eye.