As the human race continues to consume fossil fuels, Carbon Dioxide continues to pile up in our atmosphere, therefore, heating the earth slowly. Carbon dioxide levels in the air are at their highest in 650,000 years and this is slowly causing the polar ice caps to melt and then the oceans slowly rise. The ocean level across the globe has risen 3.3 millimeters every single year. Now, in 2020, we are seeing the effects of global warming directly in nature. As the world’s temperature and weather changes, animals continue to adapt by expanding their habitats and even shifting their breeding seasons. Now, research demonstrates that over the past 75 years flowers have also begun to overcome the rising temperatures and increasing carbon dioxide by altering ultraviolet (UV) pigments in their petals. The UV pigments in plants serve to protect the plant sort of like a sunscreen and also attract pollinators. Pigments in 42 different flowers, as a study shows, have incremented an average of two percent every year since 1941. In the picture above you can see that the pigment on the left flower is much lighter and less noticeable than the right flower. In the future maybe pollinators will be attracted to flowers with less powerful pigments as they will be the ones contrasting with the increasing amount of pigment flowers.
