Innovation Anthology #577:
When it comes to climate change, we can learn a lot from the past.
In his recent report for the Alberta Biodiversity Monitoring Institute and the Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation, ecologist Dr. Rick Schneider looked back six thousand years.
That’s when temperatures peaked after the last ice age.
DR RICK SCHNEIDER: It’s a period about 6000 years ago when North America was, about 2 to 3 degrees warmer than it is today. In that case, in the past we have data in the form of pollen that dropped into lake sediments and today that pollen record can be read. And to give you an indication of what grew in every location where the studies have taken place basically back to the time of glaciation. And what we found was under that 2 to 3 degree warming of that hypsothermal period, most of our ecosystems, they shifted north by about one subregion. In other words, the grasslands moved into what is now the parkland, the area around Edmonton And the parkland that is around here then shifted into the boreal forest and so on. And in the mountains everything moved uphill.
Dr. Schneider’s report is one of several which will advise government and industry on how we might adapt to climate change.
Listen to the full interview at InnovationAnthology.com
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
,
, , , ,
Sponsor
Climate Change and Emissions Management Corporation
Program Date: 2013-10-24