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Climate Change And Its Impact On Primate Life

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Natalie McMillan
Professor Montagne
Anthropology 301
17 November 2014
Climate Change and its Impact on Primate Life Over the past one hundred years, global warming and climate change has triggered a temperature increase of 0.74 degrees Celsius globally. To put that in perspective, 0.74 degrees Celsius is equal to about 1.33 degrees Fahrenheit. It is expected that over the next hundred years, the temperature will rise another 1.8 to 4 degrees Celsius, or a shocking 35 to 39 degrees Fahrenheit (Wiederholt and Post). This means that over 200 years, the global temperature will have risen by almost 50 degrees Fahrenheit; a truly shocking statistic. The immense rise in temperature has, and will continue to affect all forms of life, especially primates. Before examining how climate change has affected primate life, it is important to understand what exactly climate change is caused by. Essentially, climate change, or global warming, is the gradual increase in global temperature due to greenhouse gasses and deforestation. The way the global warming phenomenon has occurred is through the burning of fossil fuels, like petroleum and coal, for example. When they are burned they are sent into the atmosphere, damaging the layer of atmosphere that protects the earth. In addition, deforestation is the demolition of land and rainforest, which is home to most species of primates. The destruction of the rainforest not only destroys ecosystems, but releases even more carbon

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