By Leonardo Castillo
There are some basic effects of Climate Change that we hear about in every lecture, article, video and certainly the news. We know about the melting ice caps, sea levels rising, increasing floods in coastal cities, increase in droughts and wild fires, higher temperatures and more heatwaves, stronger storms and so on. All of these certainly threaten millions of people, especially those living in the most vulnerable areas of the globe. We’ve heard about the polar bear being in danger, migrating bird patterns being altered and plants’ life cycles being affected by warmer temperatures. Sadly, there are many more effects of Climate Change that also threaten Biodiversity.
One effect in particular is on the production of medicine. The truth is, each time that a plant or an animal becomes extinct, the prospect of valuable medicinal harvesting as well as possible future medical discoveries are affected. Just imagine that a valuable ingredient that could be invaluable in treating some of the biggest diseases on the planet could have been lost before even having had the chance to be discovered. Many good sources of information in these topics have been surfacing from academic and scientific studies already published. We need to include these topics in every discussion on Climate Change to help people and policy makers understand the severity of this issue. The more we know about Climate Change ripple effects, the faster we can push for the creation and implementation of mitigating plans to reduce the impact of climate change on Biodiversity as a whole.
3 Responses
This comment was sent to me by George Ropes, who is a major contributor to this blog. Here’s what George said about your post:
What a great topic, and I love the term ‘ripple effects.’ We all focus most of our attention on how humans are impacted, with only scant thought of what’s happening to animals, insects, trees, plants, oceans, fish, birds, etc. Concern for energy and GHGs leads to renewables leads to hybrids leads to autonomous vehicles, whose consequences will be far-reaching and are as yet only poorly understood. Who has thought through a world without fish? Or without plastic? Or without a Gulf Stream or one with a different pattern? There could be skating again on the canals of Holland. CC is global in scale, and both immediate and timeless. Can mankind overcome our nature enough to become a sustainable species living on a sustainable planet?
Yes, Climate Change affects almost every aspect of our present and future life. People seem to focus more on the warming aspect and its direct effects (Melting of ice caps, sea levels rising and stronger storms) but as we know there is indeed a ripple effect that extends and affects biodiversity, agriculture, logistics, epidemics and much more. I will continue to focus on those neglected sub-topics and hopefully contribute to create a more informed awareness on the bigger picture of Climate Change.
Yes, Climate Change affects almost every aspect of our present and future life. People seem to focus more on the warming aspect and its direct effects but as we know there is indeed a ripple effect that extends and affects biodiversity, agriculture, logistics, epidemics and much more. I will continue to focus on those neglected sub-topics and hopefully contribute to create a more informed awareness on the bigger picture of Climate Change.