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Environmental change is a change or disturbance of the environment most often caused by human influences and natural ecological processes. Environmental changes include various factors, such as natural disasters ,of human interferences, or animal interaction .
Climate change can also be used more broadly to include changes to the climate that have happened throughout Earth's history. [32] Global warming—used as early as 1975 [33] —became the more popular term after NASA climate scientist James Hansen used it in his 1988 testimony in the U.S. Senate. [34] Since the 2000s, climate change has ...
Some climate change effects: wildfire caused by heat and dryness, bleached coral caused by ocean acidification and heating, environmental migration caused by desertification, and coastal flooding caused by storms and sea level rise. Effects of climate change are well documented and growing for Earth's natural environment and human societies. Changes to the climate system include an overall ...
Global change in broad sense refers to planetary-scale changes in the Earth system. It is most commonly used to encompass the variety of changes connected to the rapid increase in human activities which started around mid-20th century, i.e., the Great Acceleration.
Habitat destruction leading to climate change offsets the balance of species keeping up with the extinction threshold leading to a higher likelihood of extinction. [45] Habitat loss is one of the main environmental causes of the decline of biodiversity on local, regional, and global scales.
One of the most important ways animals can deal with climatic change is migration to warmer or colder regions. [110] On a longer timescale, evolution makes ecosystems including animals better adapted to a new climate. [111] Rapid or large climate change can cause mass extinctions when creatures are stretched too far to be able to adapt. [112]
Climate change is starting to have major impacts on ecosystems. With global temperature rising, there is a decrease in snow-fall, and sea levels are rising. Ecosystems will change or evolve to cope with the increase in temperature. Consequently, many species are being driven out of their habitats. Polar bears are being threatened.
Deforestation is the main land use change contributor to global warming, [62] Between 1750 and 2007, about one-third of anthropogenic CO 2 emissions were from changes in land use - primarily from the decline in forest area and the growth in agricultural land. [63] primarily deforestation.