How Climate Change Impacts Marine Environments
Virginia Schwicker
I have been interested in the environment and human
influences that are negatively impacting the planet for many
years. I've decided that I wanted to become involved in
advocacy work with an emphasis on marine environments. I
hope to eventually get a degree in marine environmental science
and then possibly go onto law school.
What will our oceans look like 25-30 years from now? Will
marine environments supporting species today be viable
habitats for them to exist over the next several decades? Or
will we see major depletion of marine life throughout the lifeweb of marine ecosystems? Global warming and its increasing
impact on climate change is not a new phenomenon. Over
much of the earth’s history, long before anthropogenic induced
climate changes seen in modern times, natural processes have
been responsible for periods of climate change. There were
shifts of cold glacial periods with warmer periods in between
ice ages for millions of years, and much of this has to do with
the earth’s geological tendencies -- changes in the Earth’s
orbit, the sun’s intensity, and violent volcanic activity. Some of
these processes we continue to see today such as the sun’s