Start with Your Habitat

Like the monarch butterfly, all of us creatures have preferred habitats. So when a recent UN Report warns how habitats are changing world wide it includes mine, yours and the Monarch’s. The report’s overview can be overwhelming but let’s take a peek before zeroing in on the habitats needed by the butterflies. And by you.

 United Nations Biodiversity Report - The Big Picture

The report goes beyond global warming’s threats; it includes the effects of many pollutions and how humans overuse land, sea, and lifeforms.  

The main point is:

 “The rate of global change in nature during the past 50 years is unprecedented in human history.”

This table is an example of the report’s thoroughness, highlighting 8 of their 15 of goal areas. (If you can enlarge the list, you can see that reducing climate change, #13, is just one.) To see more details, scan the online advance summary and keep an eye out for some helpful diagrams. For another overview, check the New York Times reporting.

Just One Creature – the Monarch

I’ve been encouraging non-scientists to face climate change by choosing one specific starting point that they already care about. For many, this can be just one creature. With a beauty like the Monarch butterfly, lots of material is available on how they migrate, feed, and breed. Thanks to Barbara Kingsolver, you can enjoy some fine fiction while you learn more about them. Just following your curiosity can connect the dots of how changes in temperatures and pollution affect their different habitats.

For example, if whales, not butterflies are your thing, do visit some of my earlier blogs on how my curiosity about local endangered Orcas has helped me understand the rivers and salmon in my own local habitat.

Just One Human Creature – You

          Instead of one animal you can start with your own local or regional habitats. Using five layers of climate change I have proposed, you can consider how the ways you use  food, stuff, and energy are affecting your physical habitats and their plants, animals, humans, and weather. Maybe a fresh look at your habitats can spark ideas of what more you’d like to do to help clean them up or cool them down.
#Habitat #Climate Change

(To add your thoughts below enter them and then click "Comment as Guest". No login needed.)
If mapping your approach to climate change is your cup of tea, Subscribe now to receive future blogposts by email.
Click the red SIGN UP button in the sidebar.