An analysis of tens of thousands of individual local studies has shown that Antarctica is the only place on earth where life has not been affected by climate change.

The research was led by Cynthia Rosenzweig of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.  Rosenzweig’s team found that nine tenths of 28,800 sets of data showed that plants and animals were affected in a way that showed a response to warming.  95% of data sets revealed physical effects, such as diminishing glaciers.

The early arrival of spring, which could destroy the balance of entire ecosystems, is having the largest impact, particularly in areas where there are already strong seasonal changes, such as North America, Europe and parts of Asia.  There have also been changes to patterns of fish migration and an increase in the extent of forest fires in Canada. 

Rosenzweig and colleagues have concluded that these effects are the result of human activity, rather than natural climatic cycles.  Others disagree.  According to recent studies at the Walker Institute for Climate System Research at the University of Reading, UK, and the UK Met Office, natural oscillations in ocean circulation could be the main cause of the strong warming of the north Atlantic and western Europe since 1975.

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