It is not a secret that we humans have been destroying the environment for years. It is now that some of us are trying to make all people aware of the affects that our lack of care has had on the environment and what will happen if we do not make changes now and try to stop the progress of global warming. Our focus, or drive, is the thought of what type of world are we leaving our children. We also need to be looking at how global warming is affecting our animals now and in the future if we do not stop and make the needed environmentally safe changes.

There are numerous studies that are being conducted and have been conducted where watching animal behavior and traits to measure the status of the environment. These studies are showing that our Earth is changing in unnatural ways and it is disturbing. Think about the fact that right now as things stand, reindeer will no longer wander the places they currently do, they will disappear.

Marmots no longer hibernate the same amount of time that they used to. Actually compared to thirty years ago, they are ending hibernation three weeks earlier. The Canadian red squirrel is breeding 18 days earlier. Studies are showing that the red fox is moving north and invading the territory of its Arctic cousin. Polar bears are not as healthy as they were 20 years ago and they are thinner.

If we look at the sea and our creatures there we also see changes that should cause alarm. Coral reefs are expected to increase by up to a third in size. Elephant seal pups are thinner because their prey is migrating to cooler waters. Our turtles are changing behavior as well, the loggerhead is laying eggs 10 days earlier and the Hawkbill turtle hatchlings are having more females then males due to temperature changes.

Birds are changing their diets to insects that do not consume leaves that have been treated with high amounts of pesticides. What does all of this mean? It means that global warming is going to cause many of our animal species to become endangered if not extinct.

The melting ice, the warm seas, the spreading dessert are all threats to our animals. These changes, no matter how subtle have a dramatic influence on the lives of our wildlife. In the sea the disappearance of the tiny organisms that the larger creatures feed off of is causing the sea life to migrate northward.

Keeping in mind that global warming plays a huge part in our weather and climate, the increased storminess destroys the breeding colonies of the albatross that already battle the possibility of being captured and killed by fishing boats. The rise in sea levels wipe out the nesting sites of the sea turtles, seals and wading birds are also on the list of species to be affected by their habitats being destroyed.

Thought the very source of nature is change, and adaptation, the changes that are taking place in our environment due to global warming are just happening to fast. The speed is what makes it difficult for the animals to adapt effectively and this will cause us to loose a lot of our wildlife. Can you imagine a world with no reindeer? What about the day that the Sahara dessert covers all of Africa and makes migration impossible for birds?

These are changes that we can see everyday and we need to start paying attention to them. The predicted elevation of sea level by an amazing three feet coupled with the disruptions to the Earth life support systems should be our wake up call.

While you can look out your back window and see these changes taking place, the full effect will be seen by the year 2100 if the predictions of scientist come through and we do not change our ways. Think about is, 2100 is less then one hundred years away. You and I would probably not be here, but our grandchildren will and what will we have left for them? Help stop global warming, do your part to save the Earth, our children and our wildlife. They need us.

 Just published statistics for the temperature of the Mediterranean are better than predicted, and conflict with some environmental leaders have been saying.

Among the leaders with a Mediterranean coastline none have been campaigning so successfully as Prince Albert of Monaco.

Since becoming Soverign of Monaco, Prince Albert has let it be known that the environment is a major concern of his, and early on in his reign made a visit to the North Pole to highlight global warming, and he has established a foundation to study among other things, ironically sea temperatures.

Rising sea temperatures is seen as a major contributor to the ice caps melting, and is seen as a controversial part of the green campaign on climate change as some scientists argue that sea temperatures would take hundreds of years to rise as a direct result of human activity. Quite what Prince Albert will make of the findings on his own doorstep isn't known yet.

The Mediterranean waters off Monaco caused concern four years ago in 2003 when the water temperature reached 28 degrees centigrade - 82 degrees farenheit - but this year saw temperatures cool considerably to 23 centigrade in July and 24 in August. Two other warm years apart from 2003 were 2001 and 2006.

Commenting on the findings, a local Monaco travel guide states 'There doesn't appear to be a consistent rise over the years in the water temperatures, and they vary year by year, sometimes rising, sometimes falling - which would appear fairly natural rather than anything that could be seen as particularly alarming with a need for action. Should temperatures rise consistently for a few years in succession perhaps that would indicate something really is going on in the Mediterranean around Monaco.'

An example of Monaco taking the environment seriously is the annual Monaco Yacht Show, second only to the Monaco F1 in popularity. To attain carbon neutral status last year, the organisers sponsored various projects in Europe and further afield to offset carbon emissions generated by the show. The show paid for wind turbines In New Zealand, generating enough electricity for 45,000 homes and in Brittany France paid for a heath to be planted with chesnut and oak trees to protect water catchments and provide a recreational area, while in the USA paid for a methane capture system, reducing the amounts being emitted by some 95 per cent.

The leadership for the move to a greener State has come from Sovereign Prince Albert, who has been successfully campaigning among world leaders since his inauguration two years ago to move the environment up the political agenda, and it has brought the issue to the fore at home.

Prince Albert signed the country up for the Kyoto Protocol shortly after becoming Sovereign, and a few months later left behind the comfort and glamour of his palace and Casino Square for the wilds of Antartica to see for himself the damage being caused to the glaciers because of global warming. Upon his return he established the foundation with his own money to study the impact of rising sea levels, and since then has been active in the attempts to publicise the need to cut CO2 emissions in the industrialised world.

This year he has met both Prince Charles and (before the French elections) President Chirac of France to discuss global warming. Close to the Fontvieille harbour where the yacht show takes place, a new island is to be built, and the bidders have been told that a successful application must be environmentally friendly, and some proposals indicate that the island will be a floating one to avoid any disruption or damage to marine life.

Prince Albert has been active at the UN too, and is involved with a campaign to plant a billion new trees which is being welcomed by environmentalists. But like the sea temperatures, that hasn't been without controversy either, with a warning by some that in certain regions it could do more harm than good. While the campaign claims that each tree uses up 26 pounds of co2 emissions and in return produces enough oxygen for a family of four, planting the right trees is important.