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The effects of a warmer world are visible in animals’ bodies

economist.com

31–40 of 54 posts

Re: The effects of a warmer world are visible in animals’ bodies

#31
post #18

Unfortunately the title makes a small logical leap. From the article: "Her team combined data from different species in different places. Since they have little in common apart from living on a warming planet, she says, climate change is the most plausible explanation." While climate change may indeed be the most plausible explanation, this headline seems to transform from "most plausible" into a causal link.

[deleted]

Re: The effects of a warmer world are visible in animals’ bodies

#32
It's hard to prove that these mutations are adaptations to the global warming specifically, but events like mass die-offs of Australian flying foxes are pretty conclusively caused by extreme heat waves - and since there is a 100+ years of historical records we know for sure they're happening now at much higher frequency than before.

Re: The effects of a warmer world are visible in animals’ bodies

#33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And given that the planet has so far only warmed an average of 1.1 degrees celcius due to climate change, isn't it a bit overzealous to blame animals' adaptation on climate change? The worldwide average doesn't really tell the full story, because there can be significant local extremes that are far greater. See, for example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lytton,_British_Columbia , a town that broke the all-time tem…

It burned to the ground due to a wildfire caused by sparks from a train, not from the heat. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lytton_wildfire Wildfires don’t spread much better in 90F vs 121F. The big thing that causes uncontrollable spreads is lots of fast wind.

Yes they do, when higher temps have dried out the vegetation.

Re: The effects of a warmer world are visible in animals’ bodies

#34
post #18

Unfortunately the title makes a small logical leap. From the article: "Her team combined data from different species in different places. Since they have little in common apart from living on a warming planet, she says, climate change is the most plausible explanation." While climate change may indeed be the most plausible explanation, this headline seems to transform from "most plausible" into a causal link.

Probability is fundamentally all we have in science. The only distinction is in the level of confidence use in inference of the data. 95% is fairly typical though particle physics requires and impressive level >99.9999%

Re: The effects of a warmer world are visible in animals’ bodies

#35
post #11
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this comments are like bingo for climate science misunderstanding evolution doesn't happen on time scales of 100 years +1.1 avg temperature implies much larger localized changes

Evolution happens on the time scale of "birth" to reproductive age for the organism in question. I know of no corporeal entity still considered adolescent after a century. I have never even worked with an evolutionary biologist but the concept of "punctuated equilibrium" has been around for quite a while. [] my sloppy use of "birth" includes cells budding, seeds sprouting and the rest of the messy details. [] https:/…

Extremely out of my league here, but it seems logical to me that if there is a mutation, it only initially happens in a single organism. Like a single specific bear might mutate, but certainly not all of them at the same time. That organism then needs to mature (if not already) and reproduce to spread the new mutation. It seems it would take several generations of successful breeding and on top of that successful passing on of the mutated gene to have the mutation actually spread beyond just the initial one. Reproduction rate of the organism would also play a huge factor I'd imagine, like a mouse can have hundreds of offspring in a single year due to a 21 day gestation period compared to a human.

Re: The effects of a warmer world are visible in animals’ bodies

#36
post #3

Animals bodies evolve to adapt to changes in the environment. This is nothing new. It's literally the process that has driven life forward since life first appeared. And given that the planet has so far only warmed an average of 1.1 degrees celcius due to climate change, isn't it a bit overzealous to blame animals' adaptation on climate change?

> And given that the planet has so far only warmed an average of 1.1 degrees celcius due to climate change, isn't it a bit overzealous to blame animals' adaptation on climate change? The worldwide average doesn't really tell the full story, because there can be significant local extremes that are far greater. See, for example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lytton,_British_Columbia , a town that broke the all-time tem…

[deleted]

Re: The effects of a warmer world are visible in animals’ bodies

#37
post #18

Unfortunately the title makes a small logical leap. From the article: "Her team combined data from different species in different places. Since they have little in common apart from living on a warming planet, she says, climate change is the most plausible explanation." While climate change may indeed be the most plausible explanation, this headline seems to transform from "most plausible" into a causal link.

There's a lot of global changes that could be underlying contributing factors. Global air and water pollution, pesticides, microplastics. Things that were regional that are becoming global as Earth's massive interconnected recycling systems chug on our waste. The entire planet has traces of radioactive isotopes that were essentially non-existent before nuclear testing. Light pollution. Global insect apocalypse. You can create a list and rank them by the potential contributions. I didn't read the whole article because paywall, but there are lots of things that are all globally different than a century ago.

Re: The effects of a warmer world are visible in animals’ bodies

#38
post #3

Animals bodies evolve to adapt to changes in the environment. This is nothing new. It's literally the process that has driven life forward since life first appeared. And given that the planet has so far only warmed an average of 1.1 degrees celcius due to climate change, isn't it a bit overzealous to blame animals' adaptation on climate change?

> And given that the planet has so far only warmed an average of 1.1 degrees celcius due to climate change, isn't it a bit overzealous to blame animals' adaptation on climate change? The worldwide average doesn't really tell the full story, because there can be significant local extremes that are far greater. See, for example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lytton,_British_Columbia , a town that broke the all-time tem…

1.1 C = around 39 F

The world temp has gone up 39 degrees? That is much higher than I thought.

That couldn't be right?

I'm tired today.

Re: The effects of a warmer world are visible in animals’ bodies

#39

https://archive.is/ozASI Does anyone else find the Economist's lack of bylines and complete author anonymity to be off-putting? It's scary how much influence they have and how no one seems to mind that they don't feel comfortable putting their names on the stuff the advocate for and report on. Great article!

It lessens the incentive for journos to chase clout and try to inject their "personal brand" into their writing. Personally, I love it.

Re: The effects of a warmer world are visible in animals’ bodies

#40
The opening sentence shows a deep misunderstanding of climate change.

> FOR HUMANS, adapting to climate change will mostly be a matter of technology. More air conditioning, better-designed houses and bigger flood defences may help ameliorate the effects of a warmer world.

When millions of Bangladeshis are flooded from their homes, a/c and sandbags won't help, nor when malaria-bearing mosquitos reach Europe, etc.

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