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This post will address a general question that I hear from many curious people: “How climate change is affecting biodiversity”. Let’s understand what exactly is biodiversity. In other words, Biodiversity refers to any life form that has existed or exists on Earth. As you might assume from this word, every living thing, from humans to organisms, together makes up biodiversity. The relationships, cultural links, the lands and seascapes we live on, and even the animals we live with all play a role in maintaining a healthy, diverse, and intact planet. We can collectively refer to this as biodiversity.

Climate change impacts ecological processes in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems. Impacts can be measured on multiple processes at different levels of biological organization within ecosystems. In total, 82% of 94 ecological processes show evidence of being affected by climate change. Within levels of the organization, the percentage of processes impacted varies from 60% for genetics to 100% for species distribution.
Source: Science.org

Biodiversity is critical to virtually every aspect of our lives. In other words, we value biodiversity for both – its benefits to humankind and for the inherent value that it has. Humans obtain many essential needs from biodiversities, such as food, fuel, shelter, and medicine. It also provides important benefits such as the concentration of seeds, regulating climate, purifying water, cycling nutrients, and even controlling agricultural pests. Just to give you more perspective to think even broader on this is that Biodiversity has cultural value as well to humans, like for spiritual or religious reasons, for instance, this is more of a philosophical concept, but in its entirety, this is important to keep in mind.

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Climate change is causing Earth’s temperature to rise and natural disasters to occur more frequently. We will never be able to recover if we do not become increasingly conscious. And the best way to become conscious is to start by reading some interesting Climate Change books.

Recognizing the multitude of facts about the state of our planet is just the beginning. Having explored those facts, you’ll want to explore the interconnections between them; ranging from the disproportionate effects of climate change on Native populations to corporate profits.

Here are my 15 must-read climate change books that you should read in 2022. These are ordered according to my personal preference. In addition to many other books, these are the ones that climate activists and beginners alike will find useful. Feel free to give me your recommendations, if any.

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need

Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. A team of physicists, chemists, biologists, engineers, political scientists, and economists helped him to develop recommendations on what should be done to stop the planet’s slide toward certain environmental disasters. His book explains how and why we should strive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero levels and also provides details on what we can do to accomplish this profound objective.

Despite the challenges we face, he presents them with clarity. He describes how technology already helps reduce emissions based on his understanding of innovation and the challenges of introducing new ideas to the market. In addition, he detailed what can be done to improve the effectiveness of current technologies, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these innovations.

To conclude, he outlines a concrete and practical plan for attaining zero emissions-not just describing policies that government should adopt, but also what individual citizens can do to ensure that their government and employers are held accountable. While the goal of achieving zero emissions is not going to be easy, following Bill Gates’ plan makes it possible.