The current upslope migration of tropical species due to climate change will encounter an ecological edge at the treeline which will challenge their very survival.
That happened whether they were right-wingers encountering facts about evolution and climate change, or left-wingers encountering facts about fracking and nuclear power.
"The divestment movement marks the first time in my quarter century involvement with climate change that I have encountered such a strong and disciplined commitment to activism.
Similarly, in assessing the health impacts of climate change, problems have been encountered when long-term effects have had to be extrapolated from short-term associations [ 38].
All of this misses or trivialises the real, systemic significance of climate change: that humankind is encountering the finitude of our planet, confronting the need to share and protect our endowment from nature, and realising that much will have to change to make this possible.
During my own academic research visits to Costa Rica, I've encountered another climate change stress on coffee called "flora loca" (crazy flowers).
Contemporary climate change has led to organisms encountering more extreme and variable environmental conditions [1], [2].
But this year's vice-presidential contenders, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan, also failed to mention climate change during their single encounter, making for a total of six hours of primetime television debate without a single reference to climate change.
However, University of Queensland zoology professor Craig Franklin has said warmer-than-average water temperatures through climate change would make crocodiles encounters in these more heavily populated areas increasingly more common.
Branson had his first significant encounter with climate change when he read a book called "The Skeptical Environmentalist," by Bjorn Lomborg, a Danish academic who has long challenged the widely held belief that human activity places an unbearable burden on the environment.
