THE TIME IS NOW: CLIMATE CHANGE IS THE “GREATEST HIDDEN CHALLENGE FOR OUR GENERATION”

A report released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has shown that the effects of global warming are occurring now, with marine life as well as human communities already being significantly and adversely affected by rising ocean temperatures and the knock-on effects.

Considered by many to be a “concern for the future”, this new report provides evidence that we are already seeing change on a large scale. With more than 93 percent of the global warming that has resulted from human activities since the 1970s absorbed by Earth’s oceans, the data shows a “sustained and accelerating upward trend in ocean warming”.

IUCN has found that: “Entire groups of species such as plankton, fish, jellyfish, turtles and seabirds have been driven up to 10 degrees of latitude towards the Earth’s poles, as they seek to keep within the environmental conditions to which they’re adapted.”

The implications for coastal communities, especially those in the equatorial regions, are dramatic, and these trends are only set to continue, becoming more pronounced.