CONSEQUENCES: a program series that will explore the consequences of global climate change and human activities on the health of ecological systems.
Environments and whole ecological systems are endangered. We hear and read a lot about threatened and endangered species but seldom do we recognize the fact that the reasons these species are threatened or endangered is because of the threats to the environments and ecological systems with which they are associated. Threats resulting from the combined impacts of changes in global climate patterns and from human activity put ecological systems and their inhabitants in danger of failure.
Usually, threatened or endangered species are key indicators of the quality of the environment and ecological system they dominate. At the top of the food web, they are reacting to disturbances that have entered at the bottom or are affecting the ecological system as a whole. Often these disturbances, such as chemicals or disease, make their way up through the food webs becoming more and more concentrated as they make their way to the top, killing key indicator species along the way. Or, changes such as temperature, salinity, moisture or other significant environmental factors, can alter food sources and breeding patterns. The resulting pathology demonstrated can usually be traced back to the effects of climate alteration and habitat degradation caused by human activities.
There can be no separation between global climate and the environment. The world’s oceans and atmosphere drives global climate and climate determines environment. The health of the environment determines the health of the network of ecological systems nexused within nature. The compounding effects of human activities upon climate change manifest themselves in ways that can undermine the health of ecological systems, so dependent upon environmental sustainability to survive. Together, the results can be devastating and the effects witnessed not just the loss of recognizable key indicator species but also to the detriment (and potentially the loss) of the ecological system itself and all that is supported by it.
CONSEQUENCES, as a series, will look at the most endangered ecological systems, at global climate changes and at habitat loss caused by compounding human activities. CONSEQUENCES will also seek to explore, through the research being done by prominent scientist world wide, the possibilities for mitigating and reversing the risks to these endangered ecosystems in a way that the general public can understand and become a partner in the sustainability of the environmental system that supports us all, the earth.
For further information, please contact:
Jim Mau, Executive Producer @ CONSEQUENCES
Phone: (541) 482-5179
Last update: May 26, 2009
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