More on the Effects of Climate Change

A report released this week by WWF ahead of a key Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Montreal, Canada, discusses the threats posed by climate change to the world’s marine and freshwater fish species. Entitled ‘Are we putting our fish in hot water’, the report details how rising water temperatures will lead to stunted growth levels due to insufficient food supplies. The knock on effect of this will be a reduction in birth rates.

To counteract the problems of rising temperatures fish will migrate to cooler waters seeking temperatures that are normal for their habitat. This will have devastating effects on species dependent on fish, as has already been demonstrated in the Gulf of Alaska when over 120 000 sea birds starved to death when fish migrated away from the warming waters in 1993.

The WWF is calling for countries to use the meeting in Montreal to start negotiations for more stringent cuts in CO2 emissions once the current commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol runs out in 2012.

To read the report, click here.