Climate change is causing welfare harm to wild animals through habitat loss, phenological mismatches, extreme weather events and disease range shifts. Species-specific welfare responses require targeted conservation.
Climate change welfare impacts on wildlife are simultaneously vast in scale and individual in their expression. A mountain hare that turns white before the snow arrives is individually vulnerable to predation - its camouflage system has been outpaced by climate change. A seabird chick that starves because prey fish have moved to cooler waters follows parental failure in a warming sea. Each individual animal experiencing phenological mismatch, thermal stress or novel disease is experiencing welfare harm that is directly attributable to human greenhouse gas emissions. Climate welfare for wildlife requires both mitigation (reducing emissions) and adaptation (habitat restoration, range expansion support, veterinary surveillance for novel diseases).