Why are new species being discovered despite global warming?
Answer:
Your point eludes some people.
With almost the same breath that they claim "X numbers of species are becoming extinct every year" as a sign of the catastrophic nature of global warming, they claim that speciation or evolution is not increased by global warming.
Hate to break it to you, folks, but that is how it works. An unchanging environment decreases biodiversity. Extinction promotes speciation by clearing out a niche and opening up competition from bordering niches. Is it happening in one or two years? Don't be ridiculous. Evolution is one of those things, like a pointillist painting, that can't be observed close up. Evolution can only properly be evaluated over large amounts of time...but that shouldn't stop any of us from noticing potential evolutionary "pressures" when we see them.
No one can stop global warming. We may be able to slow it down. The Earth will get on fine without us!
Why do they make blue balloons when I like cheese cake? Your question is a non sequitur.
Update:
1) You are operating under the false assumption that we have found all species that exist.
2) You are operating under the false assumption that evolution operates fast enough to produce numerous new species in reaction to climate change.
Thus the finding of new species has nothing to do with climate change and thus your question is a non-sequitur.
I think new species are being discovered because of global warming, not despite it. the changes in Earth's climate may make it easier for these species to spread and multiply. Also, I think that even if gloabal warming was stopped there would still be evolution.
1. Deforestation and deep ocean exploration is allowing "discovery" of species WE have never seen before. Most of the species have been around longer than we have, they aren't "new".
2. New species evolve as a response to their environment. Just because a group mutates to form a new species does not mean that species will be viable in the long term.
3. Medical science put an end to our evolution quite a while ago.
4. Read the link and watch the E.O.Wilson TED video. That will explain it better
Outside of our indoor, climate-controlled, fabricated environments, Natural Selection is still happening. The creatures evolving and most adapted to survive the changing climate and atmosphere are surviving and being discovered. Also, your statement assumes every animal on earth has already been discovered .
Back to natural selection...Since humans control our climate indoors, we're not adapting at the same rate and require much more water than our animal and insect counterparts. Basically we're going to make the earth so that we can't survive on it. The previous answer is very true - "the earth will go on without us." The key word is WITHOUT. Hence the green movement.
One thing has nothing to do with the other. We find different species because we haven't identified all the life on earth.
They have only identified about 30% of the stuff in plants.
Global warming isn't creating new species, what we're discovering are species that have already been on the planet for thousands and millions of years and have, to date, remained undiscovered.
There are some species which benefit from global warming as a warmer environment is more condusive to their basic systems and provides a more suitablle habitat. Unfortunately the species that do best are the ones we want the least - namely the insects such as mosquitoes, locusts and parasitic animals.
The down side to global warming is that the environments of many animals are threatened and already we've seen numerous species being forced into unusual migratory patterns or being driven from their noirmal habitats through factors such as desertification. There have been many studies into the long term effects of global warming on the animal population and all come to the same stark conclusion. Namely that there will be mass extinctions as a result, the figures vary from survey to survey but fall in the range of 25% to 40% within the next 100 years if global warming continues as it is doing.
Just for the record, no-one in the know wants to stop global warming. Indeed, to do so would be catastrophic as the survival of the planet depends on natural global warming. The concern is that the unprecendented rises in temperatures which are cuasing climate change on a scale never before witnessed on the planet is having a very seriuous detrimental effect. The 'envirofascists' are wanting to see the levels of global warming and climate change returned to within natural tolerances.
Good point. They are trying to stop all global change but the Earth is not static. Maybe it's a good thing that some species go extinct to make room for others.
Why would global warming prevent new species from being discovered?
If anything the adaption required to adapt to the changing world would result in greater speciation..
Warming is good for life. Life thrives when temps get warmer.
Good point.
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