Climate change has set off the largest mass movement of species, since the last ice age, about 25,000 years ago, says a study published in the journal Science.
“Land-based species are moving polewards by an average of 17km per decade, and marine species by 72km per decade,” said Professor Gretta Pecl at the University of Tasmania in Australia, the study’s lead author.
Not only will that migration increase the range of insects that carry diseases like malaria and Lyme disease, but it will hurt crops like coffee, that “will need to be grown at higher, cooler altitudes, causing deep disruption to a global industry. The pests of crops will also move, as will their natural predators, such as insects, birds, frogs and mammals,” says the Guardian.
“Human society has yet to appreciate the implications of unprecedented species redistribution for life on Earth, including for human lives,” says the study.