Part+1+The+issues

Coral reefs are a very important part of biodiversity for they provide home to Over 25% of the oceans sea life. Not only are they important to the marine life but they are also important for People and business. The reefs provide a nursery for fish that are very important to the commercial worlds. They also protect coastal areas from large storms and attract a lot of tourists. However these amazing ecosystems can only tolerate a narrow range of temperature. One of the most visual and most noticeable effects of climate change on the coral reefs is "Coral Bleaching". When the ocean warms the oceans oxygen content reduces and, because they need the oxygen, the corals become bleached. Some people have a viewpoint of “The coral reefs must be saved". Most of these people work in the big fishing companies, because the coral reefs are home to many commercial fishing companies. Those people who work in this job might be influenced by their bosses or the only in order to keep their jobs. On the other hand another viewpoint is "leave the coral be its natural". These people might work with dynamite to dynamite fish.
 * CORAL REEFS: **

The biggest threat facing the polar bears is the loss of their habitat due to global warming. It is on the Arctic ice shelves that the polar bears make their living, which is why global warming is such a serious threat to their well-being.
 * POLAR BEARS:**

· Sea ice platforms are moving farther apart and therefore making swimming conditions more dangerous · Fewer hunting opportunities and increased scarcity of food As climate change melts sea ice, the U.S. Geological Survey projects that two thirds of polar bears will disappear by 2050. This dramatic decline in the polar bear is occurring in our lifetime, which is but a miniscule fraction of the time polar bears have roamed the vast Arctic seas. Rapid Arctic ice melting in 2007 has cuseed a record low for the surface area of summer sea ice in the Arctic Ocean, nearly 23 percent below the previous record low in 2005. It has also exceeded the projections of most climate-ice models. Based on the rapid melt, one NASA scientist projectes that the summer ice could bealmost completely gone as early as 2012. In the southern parts of polar bears habitat, like Hudson Bay, Canada, there is no sea ice during the summer, this means the polar bears must live on land until the Bay freezes in the fall. While on land during the summer, the bears eat little or nothing. In 20 years the ice-free period in Hudson Bay has increased by an average of 20 days, cutting short the seal hunting season by nearly three weeks. The ice is freezing later in the fall, but it is the earlier spring ice melt that is especially difficult for the bears, they have less time to hunt during the time when seal pups are born. As a result, the average bear weight has dropped by 15 percent, causing reproduction rates to decline. The Hudson Bay population is down more than 20 percent. The retreating ice has implications beyond the obvious habitat loss. Remaining ice is farther from shore. The larger gap of open water between the ice and land also contributes to rougher wave conditions, making the bears’ swim from shore to sea ice more hazardous. In 2004, biologists discovered four drowned polar bears in the Beaufort Sea, and suspect the actual number of drowned bears may have been considerably greater. Biologists have attributed the drowning to a combination of retreating ice and rougher seas. Exacerbating the problems of the loss of hunting areas, the shrinking polar ice cap will also cause a decline in polar bears’ prey -- seals. The reduction of the ice platforms near productive areas for the fish that the seals eat affects their nutritional status and reproduction rates. Polar bears are going hungry for longer periods of time, resulting in cannibalistic behavior. Although it has long been known polar bears will kill for dominance or kill cubs so they can breed with the female, outright predation for food was previously unobserved by biologists. Penguins are starting to desert parts of Antarctica because the icy waters are getting too hot. The numbers of adelie penguins on the Antarctic peninsula – the northern-most part of the frozen continent – are falling as global warming takes hold. And experts predict that, as the climate change continues, they may abandon much of the 900-mile-long promontory altogether. The archetypal "tuxedoed" species like the cold even more than other penguins. And the peninsula has been warming faster than almost anywhere else on earth, with temperatures increasing at least five times faster than the world average. Scientists believe this is disrupting their food supplies. Global warming is also causing them grief in another of their strongholds, the Ross Sea. Two giant icebergs have broken off the Antarctic ice sheet and are blocking the way from their breeding colonies to their feeding areas. As a result they have to travel 30 miles further to get food. On the other side of the continent, thousands of emperor penguin chicks drowned near Britain's Halley base after the ice broke up early, before they learned to swim. Like miners' canaries, the dinner-jacketed penguins of Antarctica are providing an early warning of danger to come. Global warming is heating up the frozen continent faster than the rest of the world, and the penguins are among the first to feel the effects. Flightless, and so unable to escape like other birds, they are affected by what happens both on land and sea. And, because they are easy to spot and count, they provide an early indication of what may be happening to other species. They are feeling the heat most strongly on the Antarctic peninsula, which juts out from the polar land mass towards South America. Studies of air temperatures around the world over the past half-century suggest that this is one of the three areas on the planet – along with north-western North America and part of Siberia – warming up fastest. The British Antarctic Survey says flowering plants have spread rapidly in the area, glaciers are retreating, and seven huge ice sheets have melted away. As the peninsula has warmed up, the numbers of adelie penguins have been dropping. Scientists suspect that the rising temperatures affect the small fish and other marine animals on which they feed, though they are not yet sure how. Professor Steven Emslie, of the University of North Carolina, believes that if the warming goes on the penguins will continue to decline in the peninsula, and may completely abandon much of it. In recent months global warming has been causing them trouble there too. Researchers for the US National Science Foundation said that one colony of adelies at Cape Royds will "fail totally" this year. And scientists at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography add that a colony of emperor penguins at Cape Crozier has also failed to raise any chicks. Global warming also threatens the food supplies of emperor penguins. When there is less ice in the sea, populations of krill fall. Despite all this, penguins are not in danger of extinction; there are millions of them still in Antarctica and one species, the chinstrap penguin, seems to be thriving in the warmer weather. But they still provide a warning. In the words of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the world's leading conservation body: "Things happening to penguins are a foretaste of things to come."
 * How are polar bears affected?**
 * Population Size Declines **
 * Retreating Sea Ice Platforms**
 * Scarcity of Food**
 * PENGUINS:**