3 Grad mehr | oekom verlaghttps://www.oekom.de/buch/3-grad-mehr-9783962383695Eine kleine Rezension zum Buch "3 Grad mehr. Ein Blick in die drohende Heißzeit und wie uns die Natur helfen kann, sie zu verhindern" - gUG Umweltschutz und Lebenshilfehttps://www.umweltschutz-und-lebenshilfe.de/eine-kleine-rezension-zum-buch-3-grad-mehr-ein-blick-in-die-drohende-heisszeit-und-wie-uns-die-natur-helfen-kann-sie-zu-verhindern/The book describes relentlessly what an emerging 3 degree warmer world looks like. It describes the resulting weather, biodiversity, agriculture, the consequences of flight and economic risks. But it also describes many nature-based solutions as to how a 3 degree warmer world could still be prevented.
In the "Call to Action" the book deals with (possible) social coexistence in Germany, as well as with possible solutions, financing possibilities and the power of civil society.
The editor of the book, Klaus Wiegandt, writes on page 289 under the title: “People have to know what to expect! Solution approaches, their affordability and the power of civil society”:
“In this world, where we will be dealing with a radicalization of weather patterns and with temperatures that can even be up to 6 degrees higher on average over land areas, we have to reckon with serious consequences for global agriculture, with massive damage to global infrastructure and significant impairment or even destruction of large ecosystems.
The majority of people will be affected by unprecedented restrictions on their living and survival conditions, countless will lose their lives. South of the Sahara uninhabitable regions will arise and millions of people will be forced to migrate, as "climate refugees" they will mainly target Europe. Unlike today, the Mediterranean region will not be a new home for them, increasing dryness and drought will also lead to desertification there”.
At the same time, the climate crisis is causing a massive biodiversity crisis. Particularly interesting are passages in the work on the flight of many species (flora & fauna) to the (cooler) north or to (cooler) heights:
“In the UK, of nearly 330 animal species being studied, 275 have migrated north at a rate of 14 to 25 kilometers per decade. These include representatives of a wide variety of animal groups, from mammals, birds and fish to spiders, butterflies, dragonflies and centipedes. Within a few decades, the poleward boundaries of their ranges have shifted northward by up to 60 kilometers” (p. 32).
And: "Since 1970, the average temperatures in the Swiss Alps have risen by 0.36 degrees Celsius per decade, at the same time the upper limit of the occurrence of various animal species has moved uphill by 47 to a maximum of 91 meters per decade. The plants are 17 to 40 meters. However, because the isotherms have shifted by up to 71 meters, these significant changes in most plant and animal species are insufficient to keep pace with rising temperatures (pp. 33-34).
Or the so-called “postponed phenologies” can be read in the book:
“For Bavaria, these long-term records show that the hazel blossom was 23 days earlier as a result of the rising temperatures between 1961 and 20210 (…). Of course, these shifts, which can be observed all over the world, have a significant impact on the world of organisms that depend on certain processes in nature being synchronized in time. This ensures that predators meet their prey and that young animals hatch or are born when they find optimal food in nature. Plants need to flower when their pollinators are active, when parasites meet their hosts at the right time (p. 50).
Rarely has a book about the climate crisis been so motivating to act now, to become active, to change something, maybe to prevent something, or at least to adapt structures to the climate catastrophe.
Stefan Rahmstorf writes (p. 30) on a 3 degree warmer world: “I am not sure whether the reasonably civilized coexistence of people as we know it will continue under these conditions. I personally consider a 3 degree world to be an existential threat to human civilization