Researchers in Australia have been
observing how climate change is
impacting animals, particularly how
their bodies are changing as
a result of climate change.
And it's not good news,
as you can imagine.
Now, the scientists have been
monitoring the impact of climate
change on wildlife for
many decades, and have established
that hotter temperatures will
cause some species to shrink,
lose fertility, and
in some cases die out completely.
Past research has
also established that animals in
warmer climates tend to evolve
larger appendages associated
with dissipating body heat,
a phenomenon known as Allen's rule.
So the phenomenon is also known as
shape shifting [LAUGH] and
the animals are just changing,
their bodies are changing in
response to climate change.
So researchers led by Sarah Ryding,
a PhD student at
the Deakin University in Australia,
have demonstrated that certain
appendages in birds and mammals
such as beaks and ears are actually
becoming bigger as a result
of human caused climate change.
So there's more,
I'll get to it in just a second,
but Cenk, thoughts on this?
>> Yeah, first of all,
this story's about evolution, so
please, every step aside.
>> It's not- >> I got this,
[LAUGH] but it kind of is.
Boy.
>> [LAUGH] Look guys, this is
happening all across the world and
that's why so you can say,
hey look, if it's in pockets it
could be the different things that
are happening that habitat
in particular that are causing the
beaks to get larger or infertility
or all these different events.
And that's the first thing I
thought of, you can't over
extrapolate here in terms of what
might be causing this.
But they explain that it appears to
be uniform throughout the world.
And that is what's leading them to
believe that it's
climate change that's causing it,
because that's the one thing that
is uniform across the world in all
those different habitats.
I tell you this because I'm
an expert on evolution and biology,
so you can trust me on this.
>> Hmm, okay >> Plus I read
the article.
>> Right, right.
And by the way, this research,
this isn't the first study to find
this result, this impact of climate
change on the bodies of animals.
Now to figure out if Allen's rule
might be amplified by warming,
Ryding and her colleagues examined
records of animal body proportions
in museum collections and
reviewed long term field studies of
animals in the wild.
The results revealed several
instances of rapid growth of
appendages in certain species over
a short period of time,
suggesting that these
temperature related adaptations
are occurring faster then would be
expected without climate change.
But of course, I mean aside from
their anatomy changing,
there's also the issue of species
just going extinct as a result
of climate change.
>> Yeah. >> And
the impact that that has on
the ecosystem is devastating.
So look, what needs to be done to
combat climate change is
we're nowhere near
doing that as the United States,
right, as one country.
But it's also something that needs
to be addressed on a global scale
which requires global
collaboration, which requires the
United States to collaborate with
our friends, our allies, but also
our enemies in some cases, right.
So- >> Yeah, but you're talking
sense, I mean we got to talk to
right wingers in this country who
are going to hear that story and
go, did they say larger appendages?
I mean I'm not saying anything, so.
>> No, you say that, you say that.
>> [LAUGH] No, no, I
threw it to conservatives, no,
they might look forward to that.
No, that's not how it works.
But I'm going to make a random
point here.
I'm pro evolution.
The issue isn't whether there's
a new species with larger beaks.
[LAUGH] I'm pro evolution, does it
matter if you're anti evolution,
it doesn't really matter.
Anyways, the issue is what Ana
pointed out.
The problem is when they go extinct
and they're dying off,
as unfortunately a lot of species
are because of these issues.