Effects of global warming on nature 'already significant'

Published on Wednesday 14 May 2008 22:14

MAN-MADE climate change is causing significant changes to the Earth's natural systems, a study has concluded.

Researchers found 90 per cent of changes in biological and physical systems – from shrinking glaciers to increasingly early springs – can be attributed to a warming climate.

Last year, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said it was "very likely" that global warming was man-made. This research, published in the journal Nature, goes further to say human-induced climate change is having a "significant" impact on natural systems.

The lead author, Cynthia Rosenzweig, said: "Humans are influencing climate through increasing greenhouse gas emissions and the warming world is causing impacts on physical and biological systems attributable at the global scale and in North America, Asia and Europe."

The study analysed other research covering more than 29,500 sets of data stretching back to 1970.

It looked at 829 documented physical changes, such as melting permafrost and increasing coastal erosion, and found that 95 per cent were what would be expected from warming.

It also found that 90 per cent of about 28,800 changes in plants and animals were consistent with responses to temperature changes, such as plants flowering earlier.

Dr Roger Jones, from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, said: "This paper outlines an extremely robust case for linking a range of observed physical and biological changes to human-induced climate change."