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{"source_url": "https://www.channelnewsasia.com", "url": "https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/climate-change-global-warming-effect-impact-extreme-weather-fire-12220232", "title": "Commentary: Things you love that are being wrecked by climate change", "top_image": "https://cna-sg-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto/image/12222762/16x9/991/557/2c92436a9a2d3593762e5203f0dc24ce/pp/composite-climate-change.png", "meta_img": "https://cna-sg-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto/image/12222762/16x9/991/557/2c92436a9a2d3593762e5203f0dc24ce/pp/composite-climate-change.png", "images": ["data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==", "https://www.channelnewsasia.com/blueprint/cna/img/logo-cna-mobile.svg", "https://www.channelnewsasia.com/blueprint/cna/img/logo-cna-new.svg", "https://www.channelnewsasia.com/blueprint/cna/img/logo-cna-article.svg", "https://cna-sg-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/q_auto,f_auto/image/12222762/16x9/991/557/2c92436a9a2d3593762e5203f0dc24ce/pp/composite-climate-change.png"], "movies": [], "text": "Use this list as motivation to think, talk, and act in response to climate change, says an observer.\n\nCANBERRA: There are so many stories flying around about the horrors already being wrought by climate change, you\u2019re probably struggling to keep up.\n\nThe warnings have been there for decades but still there are those who deny it. So perhaps it\u2019s timely to look at how climate change is affecting you, by wrecking some of the things you love.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nAdvertisement\n\n1. HOLIDAYS\n\nWe often choose holiday destinations with weather in mind. Sadly, climate change may see your usual destinations become less inviting, and maybe even disappear entirely.\n\nBut there\u2019s more to think about than your favourite beach retreat being drowned, or the Great Barrier Reef decaying before you see it.\n\nAdvertisement\n\nAdvertisement\n\nNow we have to worry that \u201cextreme weather events pose significant risks to travellers\u201d. The warnings here range from travel disruption, such as delayed flights due to storms, to severe danger from getting caught in cyclones, floods or snowstorms.\n\nSimply getting where you need to go could become an adventure holiday in itself, but not a fun one.\n\n2. WILDLIFE\n\nThere are more and more examples of animals falling victim to extreme weather events induced by climate change, such as the horrific mass \u201ccremations\u201d of koalas in the path of recent Australian bush fires or bats dropping dead during heatwaves.\n\nFile photo of an Australian koala. (Photo: AFP/Guillaume Souvant)\n\nOn top of that, news of the latest climate-related animal extinctions are becoming as common as reports of politicians doing nothing about it.\n\n3. HISTORY AND HERITAGE\n\nThe Italian city of Venice recently experienced its worst flooding since the mid-1960s, and the local mayor clearly connected this with climate change.\n\nAside from the human calamity unfolding there, we are seeing one of Europe\u2019s most amazing and unique cities and a World Heritage site devastated before our eyes.\n\nClimate change threatens more than 13,000 archaeological sites in North America alone if sea levels rise by 1m. That goes up to more than 30,000 sites if sea levels rise by 5m.\n\nUNESCO is worried that climate change also threatens underwater heritage sites, such as ruins and shipwrecks. For example, rising salinity and warming waters increases ship-worm populations that consume wooden shipwrecks in the Baltic sea.\n\n4. SNOW SPORTS\n\nWarming temperatures have already had negative impacts on the US snow sports industry since at least 2001.\n\nIn Australia, ski resorts are expected to see significant drops in snow fall by 2040 and, as temperatures warm, they will be unable to compensate for this by snow-making, because it doesn\u2019t work if ambient temperatures are too high.\n\n(Photo: Unsplash/Lex Valishvili)\n\nPerhaps recent efforts to make artificial snow will give us a few more years on the slopes, but I\u2019m not holding my breath.\n\n5. SPORTS AND EXERCISE\n\nIt\u2019s not just snow sports that will be affected. As temperatures warm, simply being outside in some parts of the world will not only be less pleasant, but more harmful, causing greater risk of heat stress doing any sports or exercise.\n\nThat also means lower incentives for \u2013 and greater difficult in undertaking \u2013 incidental exercise, such as walking to the bus stop.\n\n6. COFFEE\n\nAs the climate changes, your coffee hits will probably become rarer and more expensive, too.\n\n\n\nA report by the Climate Institute in 2016 suggested coffee production could drop by 50 per cent by 2050.\n\nGiven how rapidly negative climate predictions have been updated in the three years since, this might now be considered optimistic. Yikes.\n\n7. HEALTH\n\nAs the climate changes, the health of your children, your parents and your grandparents will be at greater risk through increases in air pollution, heatwaves and other factors.\n\nFILE PHOTO: A woman uses her phone on an observation deck as the skyline, shrouded by haze, is seen in Singapore September 13, 2019. REUTERS/Feline Lim/File Photo\n\nIt can be heartening to see the strong, intelligent and positive action being taken by the world\u2019s youth in response to the lack of climate action by many governments.\n\n\n\nBut the fact that this is a result of a literal existential crisis becoming a normal part of everyday life for young people is utterly horrifying.\n\n\n\n8. HOMES\n\nThe recent bush fires in Australia and the United States reveal how dramatic and destructive the effects climate change can be to where you live. Hundreds of houses have already burned down in Australia this fire season.\n\nFires are getting more frequent and more ferocious. The seasonal windows where we safely used controlled burning to clear bushfire fuel are shrinking. It\u2019s not only harder to fight fires when they happen, it\u2019s becoming harder to prevent them as well.\n\nFires aren\u2019t the only threat to homes. All around the planet, more and more houses are being destroyed by rising seas and increasingly wild storms, all thanks to climate change.\n\n\n\n9.WINE\n\nStill not convinced climate change is wrecking things you love? What if I told you it\u2019s even coming for your wine?\n\nLess water, soil degradation and higher temperatures earlier in the season all lead to dramatic negative effects on grapes and wine-making.\n\nA burnt field is seen at a vineyard in Adelaide Hills, Australia, Dec 24, 2019. (Photo: Reuters/Vinteloper)\n\nOne small upside is that disruption to traditional wine growing regions is creating opportunities to develop new wine growing areas. But there is no reason to believe these areas will maintain stable grape growing conditions as climate change progresses.\n\nWHAT NOW?\n\nIt\u2019s easy to be sad. But to change our trajectory, it\u2019s better to be mad. In the words of that great English singer songwriter John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten), \u201canger is an energy\u201d.\n\n\n\nSo maybe use this list as motivation to think, talk and act. Use it as fuel to make small, large or a combination of changes.\n\nShare your concerns, share your solutions, and do this relentlessly.\n\nWhat\u2019s happening right now is huge, overwhelming, and also inevitable without concerted action. There\u2019s no sugar-coating it: climate change is wrecking the things we love. Time to step it up a notch.\n\nDr Rod Lamberts is Deputy Director of the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science at the Australian National University. This article first appeared on The Conversation.", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": ["climate change", "extreme weather", "sports", "health"], "tags": ["health", "climate change", "extreme weather", "sports"], "authors": [], "publish_date": null, "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "Use this list as motivation to think, talk, and act in response to climate change, says an observer.", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "/image/8395694/1x1/57/57/755b75f6028a7f36cbbf113727506192/Fd/apple-touch-icon.png", "meta_data": {"viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0", "google-site-verification": "gcqKpYH6dKkhC5wY6P-YBN9YKjoYiXuPzAGLxnPglWk", "msvalidate.01": "C897C7AC0C0688E10CE5A2B45767B86C", "keywords": "climate change,extreme weather,sports,health", "news_keywords": "climate change,extreme weather,sports,health", "description": "Use this list as motivation to think, talk, and act in response to climate change, says an observer.", "fb": {"app_id": 1866941073551235}, 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