Environment Concepts

My concepts centre around an earth after humans, a planet that has to deal with the long lingering effects of our rapid unsustainable technological and population growth. They are based several thousand years after our extinction, allowing ample time for the animal and insect species to evolve and adapt to a human-scarred planet.

Concept 1: Global warming has raised sea levels to unprecedented heights, enveloping vast areas of previously arid land in shallow water. The previously land based animal life must therefore adapt to a life in water, making evolutionary changes in their hunting, breathing, and locomotive techniques in order to survive and thrive.

Concept 2: The vast amount of detritus that already forms massive flotillas in our oceans continues to grow, eventually encroaching upon the majority of the world's surface area. Land animals that rely on the oceans for food must evolve in such a way that they can break through the several feet of waste to reach the ocean's bounty. Equally, sea mammals like whales must break through for air (narwhal-esque).

Concept 3: Once the human population reaches a point where most of the land surface of the planet is covered in urban development, animals inhabiting these spaces must adapt to the artificial environment of concrete and steel. Unsure how this would affect animals, hard feet perhaps?

Concept 4: Due to pollution and deforestation, the amount of breathable air in the atmosphere has been reduced to such a degree that there is only a foot or so of potable air at ground level, the rest being so polluted as to be poisonous. Animals must adapt their physiology to consume less oxygen and to intake it at ground level.