A new report, Are We Putting Our Fish In Hot Water?, by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), asserts as global temperatures rise due to global warming, our lakes, streams, and seas will continue to get warmer, causing fish to be adversely affected. Fish need cooler temperatures to survive and even slight changes in temperature can force fish to move their feeding and breeding grounds. What can result (as witnessed in 1993 in the Gulf of Alaska when 120,000 seabirds starved to death, unable to reach their fishy prey who had moved to deeper, cooler waters) is the starvation of species dependent on fish as their primary food source.

A decline in worldwide fish stocks could have a devastating impact on humans too, particularly those dependent on fish for their protein and for the 200 million people who rely on fishing for their income. In their report, WWF said it is vital to hold any rise in global temperatures to below two degrees centigrade, a trigger point for dramatic environmental and climatic change. In an 18 November 2005 Rueters article scientists state that global temperatures have risen 0.7 of a degree Centigrade since the industrial revolution but may sharply climb this century by as much as 1.4-5.8 degrees.

The WWF report came out before the 28 November -- 9 December 2005 United Nations (UN) Meeting in Montreal, Canada which will review the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement which sets targets for reducing greenhouse gases, a major contributor to global warming. To read the Reuters article go to: www.enn.com/today.html?id=9283; to read the 13 November, 2005 New Zealand Herald article by Geoffrey Lean see: www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10354987; and to read the 18 November, 2005 FishUpdate.com article go to: www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/3368/WWF_report:_climate_change_puts_fish_at_risk_.html.

• Global warming is natural ...so is extinction Labugman 22:32:18 11/29/05 (1)
  • Re: Global warming is natural ...so is extinction Dr. Bill 22:42:10 12/06/05 (0)