What is GC and the LW?
Global change and the living world is a website created and maintained by students in the Biology department at Keene State College as part of their course, “Global Change Biology”. It is a small attempt to bring to light the lesser known deleterious consequneces of human induced climate change on the living world. When we talk about climate change and it’s consequences, we always talk about how we are changing or destroying the earth for our (human) future generation. Little do we think about how such changes are impacting other species on this earth. We (humans) have introduced unprecedented changes in the natural habitats of millions of species that share the earth with us. Every living organisms plays a role in the earth’s stage and changing or modifying it can create a cascading effect that can destroy the natural balance. Therefore, it is our moral obligation to help and care for these animals that are unable to help themselves.
Goals
Our main objective in creating this website is to bring to light the plight and condition of various organisms (other than humans) that are facing changes in their habitats and/or physical environmental conditions as a result of anthropogenic climate changes. Each blog post written by various student tells the story of a single organisms and how it is affected by rapid changes in environmental parameters caused in recent years. Scientist have been studying these effects for a long time, but most often such stories are buried deep into the scientific literature that is either hard to read or is behind a subscription money wall. We hope that by bringing these different stories to light via a simple blog, we will be able to create a general awareness in people about the declining condition of the overall biodiversity on this planet. Believe it or not, we are in the middle of the sixth mass extinction.
“Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people can transform the world.”
Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash
Important Resources
Global change is currently impacting major sections of our biosphere. The anthropogenic effect of global change has been largely ignored in the last century, but with the myriad of studies showing the inevitable effect of human on current climate trends there is an immediate need to be aware, understand and act on these changes. This website is just our “little act” to contribute to this massive undertaking. Below are some useful resources to know more about global climate change.
Website Recommendations:
(1) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change (IPCC)
(2) National Resources Defense Council
(3) “A Brief History of Climate Change.” BBC News, 20 Sep. 2013
(4) “A Sensitive Matter.” The Economist, 30 Mar. 2013
(6) Goenka, H., & Royer, D. (2017, April 5). Global warming prediction for next 200 years. Yahoo.
Podcast recommendations:
(2) America Adapts
(3) Climate Cast