Fallout of climate change
G. ANANTHAKRISHNAN
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Latest scientific findings on the impact of climate change on biodiversity
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CLIMATE CHANGE AND BIODIVERSITY: Thomas E. Lovejoy and Lee Hannah — Editors; TERI Press, The Energy and Resources Institute, IHC Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi-110003. Rs. 995.
In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, the former U.S. Vice-President, Al Gore found a changed feeling in his country. Many Americans had begun to think they had entered a period of consequences. Gore has been speaking about the consequences of a changed climate for long. With the ground now primed, he has been tirelessly campaigning on the issue on both sides of the Atlantic, calling attention to the severe penalty that the world is paying for unsustainable human activities that are heating up the globe. Katrina and Rita may only be small examples of events to come.
The Earth is in the grip of a crisis and the evidence is stronger than ever on the damage done to natural climate patterns. As the Australian scientist, Tim Flannery, says in his book, The Weather Makers, the great aerial ocean above the planet is roiled by emissions pumped relentlessly from the ground, trapping heat and warming everything.
There are still some who tend to think that the dire forecasts about global warming, climate change and the effects of these phenomena for humans are exaggerated. It would take a lot of evidence gathered with scientific rigour to convince them about the impact of anthropogenic activity on the Earth, a lot of it very damaging for life forms.
Scientific findings
This book does precisely that, covering considerable ground in presenting in one volume, some of the extant scientific input on the Earth's wondrous range of living organisms. At the heart of the book are the detailed scientific findings collated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change from the voluminous literature of the Third Assessment Report. It is bound to particularly interest those looking for evidence on how various climatic zones have reacted to the changes brought about by a warming atmosphere.
As the distinguished Harvard biologist, Edward O. Wilson points out in his comments, there is enough literature here to make the book a milestone in the growing science of climate change biology. The strongpoint of the book is that it has assembled a significant body of research that analyses the evolution of climates on a geological time scale.
The evolutionary history of the natural world has been witness to some amazing changes. Both the physical and biological spheres have altered over millions of years, marked by ice ages, periods of warming, formation of mountain ranges with effects on climates and extinctions.
Today, though, the pace of change appears to be both rapid and influenced largely by human activity.
Risk to biodiversity
The risk to biodiversity, which is at its most breathtaking in the moist tropical systems, is explained in considerable detail. The vast majority of species here are believed to have narrow, restricted niches, in terms of their elevational ranges, specific moisture requirements and the interaction with particular host species. Therefore, the tropics may endure a profound effect even with a small climatic perturbation, the chapter "Tropical Biotic Responses to Climate Change" notes. Among the well-known examples of loss of biodiversity attributed to human-induced changes in climate is the sharp decline in amphibian species richness. The internationally recognised face of this calamitous loss is the golden toad of the cloud forest of Costa Rica, which, authors J. Alan Pounds and others narrate here, was not traceable after a "crash' of many species in 1987.
The cloud forest is a documented case of changed climate and a reduction in the abundance of amphibian species, including the fascinating Fleischmann and emerald glass frogs. Many species have suffered in Costa Rica because of the "lifting cloud base", indicating the movement of the life-giving mist upslope and the increase in the number of "dry days' when there is insufficient moisture to sustain the special ecology of the region.
Damage to coral reefs
Similar destruction of marine habitat, affecting rich coral reef systems is recorded. As coastal ecosystems, coral reefs, which are most abundant closest to the equator, stand out because they are thought to have biodiversity of a greater order of magnitude than all other coastal ecosystems. The mass bleaching events of corals reported over vast areas between 1979 and 2002 against the backdrop of warmer oceans compared to a century ago, and the possible impacts of further warming by ocean currents is among the issues discussed.
What effects will the combination of manmade stressors — habitat loss, pollution of water sources, release of alien invasive species and greenhouse gas emissions — have on the natural world? "The impact of climate change in this heavily fragmented world may be immense," says the editor Thomas E. Lovejoy. Some species may be able to adjust to the altered environment by shifting their range while others may perish.
This edited volume with a foreword by R.K. Pachauri provides an exhaustive treatment of biodiversity and climate change. It is replete with scholarly references to earlier works and makes contemporary research accessible to those looking for detail.
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