The news is really scary at present. Here are a couple of examples:
- Climate change has helped melt nearly a fifth of Colombia’s mountaintop glacier cover in just seven years
- As a record-breaking heat wave scorches Sweden, dozens of wildfires are raging in parts of the country. At least 11 fires within the Arctic Circle. As one researcher put it: “This is definitely the worst year in recent times for forest fires,”
- Meanwhile many places in the Northern Hemisphere have witnessed their hottest temperatures ever recorded.
Closer to home, research recently published in the journal Nature Climate Change describes a series of ‘sudden and catastrophic ecosystem shifts’ that have occurred recently across Australia. These changes, caused by the combined stress of gradual climate change and extreme weather events, are overwhelming ecosystems’ natural resilience.
While coverage of this research has tended to focus on the impacts on the Great Barrier Reef, other examples – about Gondwanic forests in Tasmania and Alpine Ash forests in the Australian Alps – should be a wake up call for people concerned about mountain environments.
Continue reading “‘Ecosystem collapse’ threatens Alpine Ash and Pencil Pines”
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