Scientists from the world over have be quite vocal in pointing to climate changes as future causes for droughts, floods and other (equally destructive) natural disasters.
Natural catastrophies affect humans, sometimes in very disturbing ways but who's looking out for the animals and the plants many of them rely on to survive? Not enough people, if you ask biologist Kaustuv Roy from UCSD, interviewed on May 1st 2007 by Science Today, who says climate change can also affect the ecology:
"Plants and animals shift around on the landscape so you may have built a nature reserve today and you know exactly what you're trying to preserve because they live there but if the climate changes substantially, some of those plants and animals may move somewhere else."
Kaustuv Roy goes on to explain that climate change is relatively and that it could turn out to be one of the most aggravating problems facing our Blue Planet:
"It really doesn't matter which side of the conservation debate you're in. We all need to figure out what the consequences of the climate warming are. If you can't figure out the consequences, you can't even have a good conservation plan or you can't have a good management plan. And, given the trajectory of climate over the next few centuries, the magnitude of that problem is so big that we better pay attention to it."
It all goes back to the food chain. Animals and plants eventually make their way, up that chain, to us humans. By protecting our fauna and flora, we greatly enhance our own chances for survival, on Earth.
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