Sunday, December 4, 2011

The Early Bird passes on his genetics

spring landscape

Credit: © Tatiana Morozova | Dreamstime.com
As global warming brings an earlier start to spring, the early bird might not just get the worm. It might also get its genes passed on to the next generation. Because plants bloom earlier in the year, animals that wait until their usual time to migrate might miss out on all the food. Those who can reset their internal clocks and set out earlier stand a better chance at having offspring that survive and thus pass on their genetic information, thereby ultimately changing the genetic profile of their entire population. end quote from:
http://www.livescience.com/11350-top-10-surprising-results-global-warming.html


I'm not sure most people realize that literally all forms of life are changing drastically during the Global Climate change. As birds and insects move to higher ground as temperatures increase often there is no more higher cooler ground which causes that species to die out at that altitude and area because it can no longer live at those temperatures. Often, plant life cannot live when temperatures change and cannot move as fast with their seeds to newer higher grounds so those plants might go extinct in those areas. The same is true of the insects who feed on those plants in those areas. So, we are witnessing in many cases a mass die off as animals, insects and birds can't find a place with enough food or the right climate to stay alive any longer. This is starting to happen to people also in more and more areas. As more areas of the world become uninhabitable, however, likely there will be other areas near the poles that will become inhabitable nearer to both poles that weren't before. But this will only be for about 6 months a year so the people that access these changes likely will have to be very mobile like our ancient ancestors or drive, take trains or fly a lot during the year.

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