When you’re investing in a home, there’s lots of things to consider.
Do you go for the townhouse or the terrace? Are the foundations stable or being eaten by white ants? Is this a safe neighbourhood?
You probably consider the weather in relation to climate, flood resistance, and whether or not it’s north facing.
But, there’s a new factor you wouldn’t have considered.
Or, at least not in this context.
It’s changing the availability of certain goods and services. It’s causing the spread of diseases. It’s even altering one of the world’s oldest industries, agriculture.
What is it? It’s the ocean getting hotter, the melting of the polar ice caps, the result of greenhouse gas emissions.
It is climate change.
In a paper published in Science last week, researchers from 44 institutions describe how a rise in sea temperatures and climate change are impacting human lives, and decision-making, in a big way.
Their research found that around the world, in every ecosystem, species are changing their distributions.
Land animals are moving towards the poles by an average 17km per decade and marine animals by 72km per decade. Others are moving upslope to escape warming lowlands, while some fish species are seeking deeper waters as the sea surface warms.
James Cook University’s Professor Stephen Williams was involved in the research.
He said this exodus of species from certain areas will affect the availability and distribution of goods and services for humans.
Diseases will spread to new areas, with malaria expected to move poleward and to higher regions as new, warmer habitats open up to malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
“Developing nations, especially if they are near the equator, will likely experience greater climate-related local extinctions and greater economic constraints,” Professor Williams said.
Professor Williams says he doubts we will be able to feed to expected population of 9 billion people by 2050 as a result of the altered distribution of species.
“Agriculture will be altered through the direct effects of climate change and the changing distributions and abundances of pollinators, as pests and plant pathogens become more prevalent or emerge in new places.”
What does that mean for us?
He said human society has yet to appreciate the implications of unprecedented species redistribution for life on earth.
“Even if greenhouse gas emissions stopped today, the responses required in human systems to adapt…would be massive,” he said.
So, what can we do to adapt? Where should we live? These are questions researchers like Professor Williams are now trying to answer.
In the meantime, you can calculate your carbon footprint and get some tips on how to adapt now so you don’t have to later.
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