Over the next century, how do you think the effects of global climate change will compare for species adapted to extreme heat (tropical and hot desert species) versus those adapted to extreme cold (polar species)

If we do not reduce our carbon emissions and instead allow global temperatures to rise by 4.5˚C, up to half the animals and plants in some of the world’s most biodiverse areas could go extinct by 2100, according to a new study. In fact, even if we are able to limit global warming to the Paris climate agreement goal of 2˚ C, areas such as the Amazon and the Galapagos could still lose one quarter of their species, say the researchers, who studied the effects of climate change on 80,000 plants and animals in 35 areas. Another study found that local extinctions (when a species goes extinct in a particular area, but still exists elsewhere) are already occurring in 47 percent of the 976 species studied, in every kind of habitat and climatic zone.

With temperatures rising, precipitation patterns changing, and the weather getting less predictable and more extreme, a 2016 study determined that climate change is already significantly disrupting organisms and ecosystems on land and in water. Animals are not only shifting their range and altering the timing of key life stages— they are also exhibiting differences in their sex ratios, tolerance to heat, and in their bodies. Some of these changes may help a species adapt, while others could speed its demise.

Move, Adapt or Die

Animals can react to climate change in only three ways: They can move, adapt or die.