Climate Change Threatens To Deal A Knock-Out Punch To Ecosystems
Humans are teaming up with a monster they created on a job where they have already excelled: the monster is climate change and the job is destroying the ecosystem. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 14 and 15 - life below water and life on land – represent the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems that support all life forms, including ours. All the other SDGs matter only if these are protected and nurtured. It is interesting to note that climate action is listed at 13, just before these two, perhaps to drive the point that climate action is a must to protect life on the planet.
Why is climate change so disastrous to ecosystems? The answer is hidden in the term climate change itself. The climate of our planet has always been changing, for millions of years. Our planet has seen several alternating ice ages and warm-wet periods, each period stretching several millennia. Change in climate occurred ever so slowly that you wouldn’t notice the change over a generation or two. The ecosystems adapted and transformed, providing the depth and breadth of diversity and inter-dependence that we see today. Ecosystems do have their coping mechanisms to deal with occasional stress. But what we call climate change today is the drastic and sustained change in the climate due to human activities. The fast and furious change in the climate today is proving beyond the coping capacity of our ecosystems.
How did we create this crisis called climate change? We broke open the carbon coffers or carbon sinks of nature and let loose that carbon into the atmosphere. Fossil fuels represent carbon accumulated over hundreds of millions of years through buried plant and phytoplankton remains. After humans discovered coal and petroleum, we splurged on them like a spoiled child and left the planet a filthier place. We used fossil fuels to drive our carriages, planes, and dreams. We pumped billions of tons of CO2 into the air, spiking the CO2 levels, trapping more heat, and leading to global warming. Parallelly, we also started dismantling our forest ecosystems. Forests are not only vital, productive ecosystems, but also large carbon sinks. The forest vegetation and the carbon-rich forest soil hold billions of tons of carbon. By destroying forests and tilling and cultivating the converted land, we broke open another carbon bank/sink of the nature, aggravating climate change. There is a good reason why we term this climate change as anthropogenic!
The unrelenting expansion of human activities has already pushed ecosystems to its limits. Now climate change is joining hands with humans and threatening to deal a knock-out blow. Rising temperature and changing precipitation patterns are transforming ecosystems at alarming pace and scale. Both terrestrial and oceanic species are responding to climate change through phenology, shift in geographic range, and behavior. All species follow certain life-cycle pattern of breeding, spawning, and/or blooming intricately woven into the weather patterns. Changes in weather patterns can throw an entire ecosystem out of gear. Everything on this planet is so irrevocably inter-connected. What impacts a bird, a fish, a toad, or a tree can impact so many other species. The Indian monsoon is a perfect example. Monsoon rains are the lifeblood of the subcontinent – life literally dances to the tunes and timing of these rains. The spawning of fish, the breeding of frogs and snakes, and so many other life-cycle events of so many species. Imagine what will happen when the monsoons go away or shift in time or change their geographical range and intensity patterns? One ecosystem change that has already been widely reported is the shift in the geographical range of several species. As the planet warms due to climate change, species are shifting to higher elevations on land and higher latitudes in the ocean, seeking newly-warming-up regions. However, many endemic species and slow-transmitting species like trees will find it difficult to make this adaptation.
Species extinction is the most permanent and damaging impact of climate change. Ecosystems are integral units, like a finished Lego city, with numerous species interlocked and interdependent. When extinction takes out one block and punches a hole, the system may still hold and eventually repair it. When numerous blocks are pulled out, the system can no longer function and may collapse. According to the 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service, nearly a million plants and animals are facing the threat of extinction. That is out of nearly 1.7 million species identified on our plant.
Unabated climate change may push the ecosystems to a ‘tipping point’ or a point of no return. The consequence would be dire for humans who depend on ecosystems for everything from sustenance to economic productivity. Fixing climate change, therefore, is first and foremost in protecting and restoring our ecosystems.
