Anthropogenic Global Warming Versus Natural Global Warming: An Overview on Global Marine and Terrestrial Biodiversity

Climate change is a natural phenomenon. Over the past billions of years, Earth’s climate has experienced many ice and warm periods. These changes have created various environments, directly benefiting and disadvantaging certain species, eventually leding to extinction and evolutionary diversification through natural selection. However, rapid and drastic changes in Earth’s climate could be destructive and may lead to mass extinction. It is generally believed that four of the five mass extinction events were caused by drastic changes in the level of atmospheric greenhouse gases. In the recent period (the Anthropocene epoch), when human activities began to significantly impact the Earth’s climate, numerous pieces of scientific evidence indicate that anthropogenic activities are associated with the extinction of plants and animals and may lead to the sixth mass extinction. However, some scientists deny the possibility of the 6th mass extinction. Therefore, there is an urgent need to comprehensively review the impact of anthropogenic global warming on our natural environment. This article reviews the scientific evidence of the synergistic impact and chain effects of anthropogenic global warming on ecosystems and living organisms on Earth. It earnestly attempts to summarize relevant data published for specific research questions to improve the understanding of diverse evidence. This helps clarify the current state of research and raises public awareness of the impact of anthropogenic global warming on all stakeholders on Earth.