Not Finding Nemo: How Climate Change Affects Marine Life

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Not Finding Nemo
A ghost to the human eye, a fight against an invisible force, that is climate change. As the dawn breaks, a whale will no longer find its food. A lobster will wake and find it a struggle to breathe. An underwater luminescent forest of coral will cease to exist. These are just a few of the causes of climate change. A force so powerful, it will take decades to reverse its scar on the ocean. This reaction to environmental change has never been seen before on earth at this heart-breaking pace or scale. Climate change is devastatingly altering the lives of many ocean creatures.
According to Webster’s dictionary, “climate change is the change in global climate patterns apparent from the mid-to-late 20th century and onwards attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuel.” There is stronger evidence now than there has been in the past 50 years that climate change is actually a fact. As of today, carbon dioxide levels have risen higher than they had in the past fifty years. Ninety percent of this change can be blamed on humans. The estimated increase of carbon dioxide levels from the nineteenth century and now is 112 (112 what??), and quickly increasing (“The basics: A brief Introduction to Climate Change”). The rate at which climate change is moving is faster than it has been in the past 2,000 years. Due to this fact, scientists have made several predictions. Floods and extreme weather, that usually occur every 100 to 500 years, will occur more often and cost countries around the world billions of dollars. Most people do not fully understand the effects that this rapidly changing climate has on our planet. The hotter the climate continues to get, the water wil...

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...x. “Plankton will Suffer as Oceans Warm.” Climate News Network. 8 Sept. 2013. Web. 26 March 2014. . o Kirby. Alex. “Sea Floor Marine Life Face Major Threat from Climate.” Climate Central. 18 Jan. 2014. Web. 5 March 2014. . o Lee, Jane. “Is Climate Change Increasing The Dieses Risk for Arctic Marine Animals?” National Geographic. 14 Feb. 2014. Web. 5 March 2014. . o “Ocean Acidification.” National Geographic. 2014. Web. 5 March 2014. . o “The Basics: A Brief Introduction To Climate Change.” New England Aquarium. 2014. Web. 5 March 2014. . o Woodward, John. “Climate Change.” New York: DY Publisher, 2008. Print. o “Too Many Jellies.” Extreme Explore, March 2014. print.

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