Global warming threatens tropics

Global warming threatens tropicsStory Highlights
Tropical plants and animals may face a great threat from global warming

Research teams hopes to bring this concern to public attention

Species may try to find cooler climates, but some will have no where to go

Studies show animals in other climate types affected as well

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- If you can't stand global warming, get out of the tropics.


"Many lowland tropical species could be in trouble," a team of researchers said.

While the most significant harm from climate change so far has been in the polar regions, tropical plants and animals may face an even greater threat, say scientists who studied conditions in Costa Rica.

"Many lowland tropical species could be in trouble," the team of researchers, led by Robert K. Colwell of the University of Connecticut, warns in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

"The tropics, in the popular view, are already hot, so how could global warming harm tropical species? We hope to put this concern on the conservation agenda," Colwell said.

That's because some tropical species, insects are an example, are living near their maximum temperatures already and warmer conditions could cause them to decline, Colwell explained.

"We chose the word 'attrition' to emphasize slow deterioration," he said. "How soon that will be evident enough for a consensus is difficult to say."

But the researchers estimated that a temperature increase of 5.8 degrees Fahrenheit (3.2 Celsius) over a century would make 53 percent of the 1,902 lowland tropical species they studied subject to attrition.

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That doesn't mean today's jungles will one day be barren, however.

"'Tis an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Some species will thrive," Colwell said. "But they are likely to be those already adapted to stressful conditions," such as weeds.

Many Blessings :Hello:

Interesting topic sxylitlrebel! The cycling of our planet from warm to cold and back again has been going on for at least a couple of million years now and we are at this time now at the beginning of another warming up cycle. A lot of folks claim that it is humankind's fault that things are warming up, but things would be warming up whether humankind was here or not. Things get warm or cold because for some reason our sun warms up and cools off. At this point in time our sun is cooling off and we are going into a mini me ice age. The last time this happened in recorded history it lasted one hundred years and then the sun started warming up again.

Yes Humankind can probably make things worse, but I do not think that Humankind is responsible for the sun warming up and cooling off and that is what is causing global warming. Yes we probably contribute to the "greenhouse" effect, but most of what is causing that problem is being caused by volcanoes (and to some extent forest fires). If these things were not happening, then carbon emissions caused by humankind would be a drop in the bucket and not actually be a problem except in areas like large cities and other types of populated areas during a pressure inversion.