* Apple users running MacOSX 10.4 or later must install Microsoft's Silverlight software in order to view the streaming videos marked with *. Once installed, restart your browser before viewing. Silverlight 4.0 intel (14MB) | Silverlight 1.0 ppc (5MB) WATCH AND LISTEN shorter We Are the Asteroid Peter Sinclair, Yale Climate Connections Culled from interviews with seven scientists and writer Elizabeth Kolbert, these brief statements address the expected and serious loss of species and biodiversity under climate change. While other mass extinctions have been caused by such natural factors as volcanism and an asteroid hit, we humans are causing this one, and it is the fastest such event ever. (6 minutes, August 2015) longer The Biological and Ecological Effects of Climate Change * Alan Knapp, Department of Biology, Colorado State University A lucid overview of some key effects of climate change on plants and animals, with a wealth of vivid, concrete examples. Contents include what we know from paleoclimate records (slide 12), how climate change interacts with other elements of global change (14 and following), changing hardiness zone maps (21), long-term monitoring and observations (40 ff), changes in the timing of natural interactions (46 ff), thresholds (61), experiments (76 ff), rainfall changes and American grasslands (85 ff), and "7 things that keep [the speaker] awake at night." (65 minutes, October 2008) READ books Before They're Gone: A Family's Year-Long Quest to Explore America's Most Endangered National Parks Michael Lanza. Beacon Press, 2012, 224 pp With their two small children for company, Lanza and his wife embark on a year's worth of visits to national parks (all in the West except the Everglades) that are most likely to feel the impact of climate change. Eloquent, down-to-earth, and very well researched, this book might be most compelling for readers who have loved their time in one or more of these parks, or those who hope that today's and tomorrow's children will have that opportunity. The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth Tim Flannery. Grove Press, 2005, 321 pp plus notes and index. Australian zoologist, paleontologist, and writer Flannery provides a well-researched, expansive, lively overview of "the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do about it"‒with particular attention to the effects on living creatures, including people. Paying more attention to the southern hemisphere than American books typically provide, and taking advantage of his own scientific training as he works through information from other specializations, this leading public scientist puts his story-telling skills to good use in this important and engaging book. articles & essays For more annotated links on aspects of the effect of global warming on the natural world, see the pages on the Climate/Human Past; Cold Places; Forests and Fires; Oceans, Coasts and Sea Level; and Wild Weather. Head in the Clouds: The Woman Scaling Fresh Climate Change Heights Peter Beaumont, The Guardian, December 2018 When the cloud forest of Costa Rica warms and dries, what happens to the trees, to the amphibians, birds, orchids, and bats, to the nearby coffee farmers, to all that supports this lush and protected ecosystem, including tourism? With nearly four decades of research here, pioneering canopy biologist Nalini Nadkarni (along with other scientists and local people) has been seeing more and more change‒and becoming more outspoken about what is happening. As Seas Warm, Galapagos Islands Face a Giant Evolutionary Test Nicholas Casey, with photos by Josh Haner, New York Times, December 2018 As the oceans warm and El Niño events seem to become more intense and frequent, the stresses of heat and drought on the creatures of these amazing islands will increase as well, bringing changes no one can predict for sure. Part of the paper's series "Warming Planet, Vanishing Heritage," this beautiful and interesting story is also a warning call. The Big Meltdown Craig Welch, with photos by Paul Nicklen, Cristina Mittermeier, and Keith Ladzinski, National Geographic, November 2018 This is a gorgeous look at how climate change is affecting the lives and livelihoods of Antarctic species, especially penguins, seals, & whales. Complement it with this interesting story about satellite research by Eric Niiler (December 2018) in Wired: Penguin Poop, Seen From Space, Tells Our Climate Story. The Insect Apocalypse Is Here Brooke Jarvis, New York Times, November 2018 A terrific article about the precipitous and largely invisible drop in insect numbers around the globe. Highly informative, it touches on a wide variety of subjects, including the importance of abundance, the role of amateur naturalists, aka citizen scientists, the difficulty of seeing past the "sliding baseline" effect, and more. Climate change is only one of the factors leading to this very dangerous decline, a situation typical of its role as a threat multiplier. For two more good stories about this important problem, reporting on a new study, see Business Insider and Vox (both February 2019). This Unique Andean Ecosystem is Warming Almost as Fast as the Arctic Sarah Fecht, Columbia University Earth Institute, November 2018 This interesting blog covers some of the wide-ranging and integrative science being done in the (Colombian) páramos to look at past, present, and possible future climate-linked changes in vegetation and water dynamics. Evocative photos, too. Climate Change Could Render Many of Earth's Ecosystems Unrecognizable Sarah Kaplan, Washington Post, August 2018 Matching data about how vegetation changed as Earth came out of the last ice age with scenarios for our next century, this extensive study suggests we are likely heading towards massively altered ecosystems over much of the globe‒along with equally massive changes in the many ways humans interact with those ecosystems for food, water, safe shelter, and more. Spring is Springing Sooner, Throwing Nature’s Rhythms out of Whack Nathan Rott, NPR, July 2018 For many decades now, scientists have been closely watching the summer unfold high in the Colorado Rockies at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory. Their long-term observations are now illuminating some of the changes in timing that are likely to bring trouble, as when eaters and their food don't shift their schedules at the same rates. Urgent Climate Action Required to Protect Tens of Thousands of Species Worldwide, New Research Shows John H. Cushman Jr. and Neela Banerjee, Inside Climate News, May 2018 New research keeps on finding that every degree, or even half degree, of increased warming makes a really big difference in impacts: in the case of the study described here, on plants, vertebrates, and especially insects. Climate Change on Track to Cause Major Insect Wipeout, Scientists Warn Damian Carrington, The Guardian, May 2018 You may not love insects, but they are really, really important to functioning ecosystems. They are also at high risk from climate change, much more so for greater than for lesser temperature rises. Here's a good, quick introduction to this issue. Climate Change is Making it Harder to Revive Damaged Land Maya L. Kapoor, High Country News, June 2018 With changing seasons, temperatures, and moisture patterns, it doesn't make sense any more to try to return damaged places to their former condition. Instead, ecologists are thinking about how to preserve maximum biodiversity and ecosystem functions, even if doing so might mean moving plants and even using non-natives in restoration projects. This is a good introduction to this new set of challenges. Climate Change and Biodiversity: Bookshelf Michael Svoboda, Yale Climate Connections, October 2017 About once a month, Michael Svoboda posts a "bookshelf" focused on some aspect of climate, with photos of the book covers and descriptive text drawn from their publishers' text. While these books tend towards the academic, just scanning the descriptions isn't a bad way to get a sense of what research and thinking is going on about what topics. Two lists on this subject of biodiversity do provide such a glimpse‒of 12 books and 11 reports by agencies, NGOs, and research centers. 5 Plants and Animals Utterly Confused by Climate Change Livia Albeck-Ripka and Brad Plumer, New York Times, April 2018 This very short piece offers five quick examples of ways the natural world is messing with the timing and thus success of some very old natural processes‒when bees pollinate flowers, caterpillars nourish birds, birds lay eggs in farm fields, baby caribou find good food, and snowshoe hares can hide from predators. Many such stories are beginning to emerge, each one particular to place, species, and processes, but seen as a whole, they draw a troubling picture of the kinds of natural disturbances we will be seeing. Climate Change Impacting 'Most' Species on Earth, Even Down to Their Genomes Jeremy Hance, The Guardian, April 2017 Addressing three recent studies about how widely climate change is already affecting life on earth (including through local and global extinctions of both species and ecosystems), this very good piece will bring you up to speed on this topic. Here is Hance's first sentence: "Climate change is rapidly becoming a crisis that defies hyperbole." And near the end: "Does all this imply nothing can be done? Of course not." Between are plenty of specific, vivid examples. Climate-driven Species on the Move Are Changing (Almost) Everything Gretta Petl, Adriana Vergés, Ekaterina Popova, Jan McDonald, The Conversation, April 2017 This very readable entry on the excellent blog "The Conversation" ("Academic rigor, journalistic flair") describes the contents and implications of an article published in the (firewalled) journal Science (one of the three studies included in the previous entry). Focusing on how so many species are moving and how those movements change ecosystems, including those that support human life, it is informative, sobering, and rich with links to scientific studies. Living Planet Report 2016 World Wildlife Fund In just the last forty years, according to this report, Earth has lost over half its mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish‒not half the species, but half the number of individuals. And, after habitat loss and hunting and fishing for food, climate change is (already) the third leading culprit. How can this be? What can we do about it? This is a good place to start learning and thinking. The Forests of the World Are in Serious Trouble, Scientists Report Chris Mooney, The Washington Post, August 2015 A good summary of the August 21 issue of the journal Science that focuses on this topic, with descriptions of threats‒including those linked to climate change‒to four kinds of forests, tropical, temperate, boreal, and planted. One in six of world's species faces extinction due to climate change Adam Vaughan, The Guardian, April 2015 Here is one good story about an important and eye-popping study published in Science (and thus requiring a subscription to read). Coordinating results from 131 earlier studies, these researchers conclude that if we don't lower our emissions, up to one in six species will be extinct or on its way to extinction by 2100‒and that is only considering temperature rises, not associated stresses like increased wildfire. If we do lower emissions significantly, we will see substantially fewer extinctions. Other excellent and complementary accounts are at Climate Central and Vox. Winged Warnings: What Birds Are Telling Us about Our Planet's Health Environmental Health News, 2014 This six-week series of articles by a number of writers, produced in conjunction with National Geographic, looks at a range of threats to the world's birds, including climate change. Birds and Climate Change: Special Issue Audubon Magazine, September-October 2014 If you care about birds, you need to look at this issue, which is all online. Start with the article by Michelle Nijhuis, which outlines the results of Audubon's 7-year project looking into the "expected effects of climate change on North American bird populations. Then look at the other pieces, some of which elaborate on specific issues while others suggest things we can do. websites National Park Service, Climate Change Response Program A handsome, informative, easy-to-use site covering current and likely climate changes over the entire park system and the Park Service's responses and goals-with good links to information about specific parks, regions, and topics. TEACH classes Global Change Ecology, Impacts and Mitigation Professors Joe von Fischer and Julia Klein, Colorado State University This junior-level course, taught by faculty in biology and natural resources, works to build connections between the natural earth system and the human components including economic, political and technological aspects. resources Animals at Risk from Climate Change (poster) The Global Education Project, 2017 This handsome, informative, succinct poster about climate change and some of the many animals it is putting at risk is suitable for young people but informative enough for adults. $10 for a paper version (less in bulk), but you can also read it online.