Populations, and not entire species, might be the key to adapting to climate change

"Life, uh, find a way," Dr. Ian
 Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum).

Jeff Goldblum may have only been pretending to be a scientist (and talking about fictional dinosaurs), but he kind of hit the nail on the head with that famous quote. 

The more we learn, the more we’re in awe of the solutions animals and plants find for the many challenges that come with living on this big blue planet.

This is particularly important in an era of rapid environmental changes induced by human activities. How will organisms respond to projected future environmental conditions? What are their solutions to cope with major threats such as climate change? In principle, we know they can respond in at least three ways: organisms can take flight (through migration), fight (adjusting their biology through acclimatisation and/or adaptation) or they can die. 

All of these potential responses are conditioned by, perhaps, one of the most important characteristics of nature, the existence of variation.

We can see variation in the biological features of organisms, called ‘phenotypes’ or ‘traits’, and we can feel variation in the physical factors of their environments. 

The coupling between these two components of nature — phenotype and environment — has driven the evolution and diversification of life on earth during the last 3.5 billion years.

Read the CSIRO blog by Dr Juan Diego Gaitan-Espitia - “Populations, and not entire species, might be the key to adapting to climate change.”

2017: Trump Peddles Climate Doubt in a World Sold on Action

When Donald Trump takes over the U.S. presidency
 from Barack Obama he will face a world already
committed to climate change action, and his hostility to
science and action could cause diplomatic ripple effects. 

President-elect Donald Trump may dismiss the Paris Agreement and pack his cabinet with climate deniers, but once he takes office, he will face a world that takes the climate crisis as seriously as he does not.

He will enter a complex web of diplomatic relations, where issues like trade, finance, migration, security, poverty, food aid and disaster relief are all intertwined and all have important links to the climate agenda. It's a world already dealing with significant climate impacts and sold on climate action.

"I am struck by the shift over the last few years in how the global community puts climate change on its agenda," Jonathan Pershing, President Obama's special envoy on climate, told InsideClimate News. "It is now virtually everywhere."

Since the signing of the Paris Agreement a year ago, addressing climate change has remained a major imperative for most of the world's nations. Enough countries quickly ratified the accord so that it entered into force early, in November. Shortly after Trump's surprising election, delegates from virtually every country in the world gathered in Marrakech to start putting the Paris treaty immediately into action.

Read the Inside Climate News story - “2017: Trump Peddles Climate Doubt in a World Sold on Action.”

Exploring the Climate Change, Migration and Conflict Nexus

The potential link between climate change, migration, and conflict has been widely discussed and is increasingly viewed by policy makers as a security issue.

However, considerable uncertainty remains regarding the role that climate variability and change play among the many drivers of migration and conflict.

The overall objective of this paper is to explore the potential pathways linking climate change, migration and increased risk of conflict.

We review the existing literature surrounding this issue and break the problem into two components: the links between climate change and migration, and those between migration and conflict.

We found a large range of views regarding the importance of climate change as a driver for increasing rates of migration and subsequently of conflict.

We argue that future research should focus not only on the climate-migration-conflict pathway but also work to understand the other pathways by which climate variability and change might exacerbate conflict.

We conclude by proposing five questions to help guide future research on the link between climate change, migration, and conflict.

Read the paper from Kate Burrows and Patrick L. Kinney from the

Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York - “Exploring the Climate Change, Migration and Conflict Nexus.”

Winemakers adapt to climate by moving states

Searching for a cooler climate,
Victorian winemakers
 are migrating to Tasmania.

They are one of the oldest families of wine in Australia, and after more than 120 years in Victoria, Brown Brothers' decision to expand outside of its traditional growing area because of warming temperatures is paying off.

Warm springs and hot summers can affect grape quality and produce lower-quality, more alcoholic wine.

Wine companies big and small are scrambling to adapt, with vineyard managers changing things like the way they prune, how they sit the vines on the trellis, different grape varieties, and the location of vineyards.

Company chief Ross Brown said he was ecstatic about the company's Tasmanian purchase, which includes a vineyard and winery in the state's north and a vineyard on the east coast.

It secures the company's supply of cool climate grapes.

Read the ABC story - “Warming temperatures spark 'race to Tasmania' for winemakers escaping heat.”

(Migration driven by climate change can be seen in a few places around the world – the Syrian diaspora for example is commonly thought to driven by war, a war which is the manifestation of drought, which in turn is a product of climate change – and now are seeing the migration of winemakers from an increasingly hot South Australia to a cooler Tasmania. It is a measured migration compared to the chaotic exit from Syria, but it is still a move driven by climate disruption – Robert McLean).

World War II resonance to 'stop the boats'

Tony Abbott - his plan to
 "stop the boats" resonates with
 WWII Japanese behaviour.

Beneath the Wisteria supporter/convenor, John Pettigrew, has personal knowledge of how the Japanese attempted to “stop the boats” during World War II and says it has a resonance with what Tony Abbott is now proposing.
John has written a Letter to the Editor about that plan suggesting it echoes what happened during the Second World War.

Abbotts hired vigilantes.

Tony Abbott has announced a $20 million program with the International Organisation for Migration, part of which is to enlist Indonesian villages as paid vigilantes to disrupt the transit of refugees.

This program mirrors tactics used by the Japanese during WWII to capture and execute escaping Australian POW’s in the jungles of Malaya and Burma, using local Malays and Burmese as paid informants.

Our POW’s only crime was to attempt escaping death camps, enforced death marches or the work parties of the infamous Burma railway and were at the mercy of locals and these tactics.

Returning POW’s often spoke little of their experiences, but this issue was spoken of, and with bitterness and lasting resentment by my father and his POW friends.

I hate to think that we as a nation need to resort to similar tactics against those less fortunate than ourselves fleeing who knows what atrocities.

 John Pettigrew