now that earth is the warmest it's been for maybe 1 million years?

Question

now that earth is the warmest it's been for maybe 1 million years, will it increase the rate of evolution in some species, causing them to evolve faster and develop the necessary changes to their form to cope with this difference in climate.

Answer 1

No, it was warmer than this only 1,000 years ago.

Answer 2

Yes you are correct - global temperatures are the hottest in 12,000 years and are near the million year peak (link). Climate has been fluctuating since the world began, and the changing environments obviously helping to push evolution. So we shouldn't be too stressed about climate changing a little bit, it always is.

However, better and better paleoclimate records are starting to show a link between rapid, massive climate change and mass extinction events - eg. the Permian-Triassic boundary, Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, Cenomanian-Turonian boundary, mid-Aptian.... and off course, the well known small extinction events around the recent ice-ages for which there is such a good fossil record.

Problem is we just don't know how much climate change is too much. Some of the most extreme climate models (which are getting pretty good, partly from calibrating using past climates worked out by petroleum geologists) show that if we burn all our fossil fuel reserves in the next few hundred years, most of Australia will be covered in tropical rainforest, which might make a nice change... unless you're a desert animal currently living there.

Who knows. There will definately by evolutionary changes no matter what, like the way some fish species have evolved to be smaller, to evade the fishermans size restrictions.

Answer 3

What was the planet's temperature 1,000,000,000 years ago? Better year, what was it 200 years ago during the little ice age. One hundred years ago, the planet's tilt was greater than today, with the Arctic and antarctic circles being larger. Now they are smaller, with more UV radiation hitting a greater area of the planet for longer periods of time each year. What was the planet's temperature 1000 years ago, when the arctic circle was much larger, when snow and Ice covered much of Europe, nearly all the way to the Mediterranean during the Winter. There are far more factors than pollution affecting the planet's temperature. Eventually the planet would have been warmer, but pollution has forced the changes to take place faster.

Answer 4

First of all, from what I've read, it was actually hotter than it is today as recently at 1000 years ago.

As for your question about evolution, well, it has happened constantly throughout the Earth's history. Any attempt to suddenly stop it from happening now would be spectacularly un-green.

The World is a constantly changing environment. Mankind, however, has always tried to control his environment. We are now planning on trying to do this on a planet-wide scale. Frankly, I think it will be a disaster!

Have a look here http://www.crichton-official.com/speeches/index.html This is Michael Crichton’s website. (He wrote Jurassic Park, just in case you don’t recognise the name). Have a look at the top link, which is his speech on "Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century". It’s a bit long and if you can’t be bothered to read it all, just skip down until you see the bit on Yellowstone National Park. If that’s what happens when we try to manage only 2 million acres, I dread to think what’s going to happen when we try to manage the whole planet!

Answer 5

To be honest I think alot of wierd things are going on right now on our planet, I really do think that Global Warming is causing alot of issues, and we as a species have a responsibilty to do all we can to stop it from further damaging the only home we have. I think that there will be alot of species changing to adapt to the new climate. Some might only be small, but some changes might be big ones. What I do see happening is the extinction of alot of creatures exspecially those in the colder climates. The homes of those animals is disappearing more and more every day...kinda sad to think about if you ask me

Answer 6

The problem is not that it will be too hot. The problem is coastal flooding and disruption of agriculture. That will cost the rich countries enormous amounts of money, and cause way more starvation in the poor countries.

Answer 7

Evolution is humbug

Answer 8

i think the only answer to that one is wait and see

Answer 9

Don't believe it, it is just hype or downright lies.

Answer 10

no we are all ****@d