Global Warming Means Culture Change
Global Warming Means Culture Change: Scientific American Podcast
Global warming is bad news for winter sports. But that’s not the only way climate change will mean culture change too.
The meltdown of Arctic sea ice may end traditional hunting and fishing for Arctic peoples. Ocean acidification’s impact on coral reefs may eliminate symbolic species, like Melanesia’s “place spirits” within dolphins, sharks and rays.
These changes will be as global in scope as global warming itself, according to a preliminary analysis published in the journal Nature Climate Change. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) Whether it be cities in the developed world walloped by superstorms—ahem, New York—or failed crops for subsistence farmers.