ENN: Environmental News Network — Know Your Environment. (2015, July 20). Retrieved August 21, 2015 from http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/48793

Hawaii is known to have a plethora beautiful, diverse bird species. However, due to global climate change, the survival of many of these species will be threatened in the future. Recently, the Hawaiian bird populations have been plagued by disease-carrying mosquitoes; such diseases include avian pox and malaria which have proven to be usually fatal for the birds. In the future, the number of Hawaiian birds deaths by these mosquitoes will continue to increase due to a spike in temperature in their region. The warming climate has forced these birds to flee to colder zones of higher altitude to find solace from the mosquitoes, who prefer a warmer climate. As the temperature keeps rising, the once cooler zones will be suitable habitats for the disease-carrying insects. As a result, these birds species will die off more rapidly. However, strong efforts to prevent this give the birds some hope for the future.

This article illustrates just one of the many individual devastating effects that global climate change has had on animals and their environment. Species like the Hawaiian native birds cannot simply adapt or evolve quickly enough in response to the alarmingly fast rate of climate change. Even the slightest change in temperature can screw up habitats for a specific species and negatively impact their population in a big way. This article is a scary sign of what is likely to come for many species in the future. Everyone needs to buy in on reversing the effects of global climate change and denial of its existence needs to change; global warming is staring us in the face. I like how the author gives a final paragraph about the future and I find the possible ways to help the birds interesting and realistic, like curbing mosquito population growth on a large scale.