IPCC report: climate impacts on wildlife

Plants, animals and entire ecosystems are on the move as rising temperatures force species to seek out cooler climes

Jessica Aldred

theguardian.com, Monday 31 March 2014 12.31 BST

One focus of the latest report from the UN panel on climate change is the impact on Earth's ecosystems. The report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that in recent decades, many plant and animal species have moved their range, changed numbers or shifted their seasonal activities as a result of warmer temperatures.

Moving on up

Species are matching temperature rises by increasingly shifting their range (the geographic area to which their activity is confined) towards the cooler poles or higher altitudes – sometimes three times faster than previously thought. Species that already inhabit the upper limit of their habitat – such as the polar bear, snow leopard or dotterel – literally have nowhere left to go.

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Until about 2,000 years ago, no human had set foot on Madagascar. This wonderland of wildlife east of Africa is home to all of the world's lemurs, a diverse group of primates, most of which have foxlike faces and large eyes. Lemurs descend from animals that arrived on the isolated island between 50 million and 60 million years ago.

Continued

Irish oil could soon be extracted

For the first time an exploration company says it can extract oil from Irish waters.

And if the plans go ahead the country could make billions of pounds.

Ireland is largely underexplored and only 150 wells have been drilled over the past 40 years.

Until now there's never been any commercial oil developments from Irish waters and this new opportunity could take two years to begin.

However, Campaigners say that Ireland's laws over its natural resources aren't strict enough and need to be changed before any oil is extracted.

The RSPB also want the UK government to stop any oil and gas exploration around certain areas because the drilling of oil will have an impact on local wildlife.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/19893843