Climate change ‘devastates’ Galapagos

LONDON - The coastal wildlife of the Galapagos Islands has been devastated by rising ocean temperatures due to global warming and human activity like fishing and tourism, Sky News has quoted scientists, as saying.

According to the report, several species of marine animals and plants on the world-famous archipelago are now believed to be extinct.

A new report, in the journal Global Change Biology, claims Charles Darwin’s “living laboratory”, which is arguably the planet’s most celebrated environmental treasure, has changed forever.

The researchers have warned the Galapagos was a “canary in a coalmine” indicating what the world could expect from global warming.

Conservation International found coral reefs and kelp beds had been wiped out in just a few decades.

A diverse and unique set of ecosystems exist in the Galapagos thanks to the convergence of several major ocean currents.

Scott Henderson, from Conservation International, said: “If marine species are going extinct in one of the most famous and most cherished world heritage sites, what is happening in the rest of the world that has been so little studied?

“It is time we recognise that the ocean has limits, just as the rainforests of the Amazon, the rivers of Europe, the ice sheets of the Arctic and the grasslands of the great plains,” he said. (ANI)