Already, it says, birds like the great tit in Scotland and the Mexican jay in Arizona are beginning to breed earlier in the year, and butterflies are moving their ranges northwards throughout Europe. Many Arctic mammals are starting to feel the effects of reduced sea ice and the warming tundra. Pests, by contrast, will often benefit. In the last ten years we've had an almost exponential increase in temperature, and the bark beetle that normally has a two-year life cycle many years now goes through its life cycle in one year. Decision time Governments are due to take final decisions on rules for operating the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change at the UN climate summit in the Netherlands in November.
Some researchers still doubt that human activities are inducing rapid climate change.
They highlight the inconsistencies between the temperature records taken at the Earth's surface, which show rapid warming over the last century, and data produced by satellite and balloon studies.