Informant38

NAS Report Cites Possibility of Abrupt Climate Change :: Green Nature :: Q:"And, what would be the most immediate dangers of abrupt climate change?"
"In terms of looking for danger, it is probably what happens to people in ecosystems. We live with a lot of different climates. But, we have built for the conditions we have. We have the right number of heaters and air conditioners, wells, dams and so on. And if you have any sort of climate change, it will require us to adapt to that change. If something happens, we will have costs. If those costs come slowly they are easy to deal with. If they come fast they are hard to deal with. And so the real issues become how do we as humans and how do natural ecosystems deal with an abrupt change? Certainly in the past, nature had abrupt climate changes before we were causing them, and so ecosystems have certainly dealt with them. But they haven't dealt with them when there are interstate highways and cornfields in the way. And, so if you have an abrupt climate change and the plants living where you are really should now be living 1,000 miles to the north, can they get there when there is an interstate highway and a cornfield in the way?"