El Niño and Climate Change Wreak Havoc on Our Ecosystems. 

The American Meteorological Society (AMS) has published the annual State of the Climate [SoC] report, and folks, it’s not good news. Here’s the BLUF (bottom line up front): with El Niño as an “omnipresent backdrop” and (another) hottest year on record, our ecosystems – and wildlife – are literally feeling the heat. Warming oceans are the driver behind community wide-shifts in species of fish, and the consequent loss of sea ice is reducing the natural habitat of walrus herds. Our two-legged community has not gone unaffected either, to say the least. Between all the election coverage, perhaps you’ve seen some news on the massive flooding in South America, the raging peat fires of Indonesia, or the intense heat wave in the Middle East which killed over 1,000 people. “This notion of connectedness—between climate, landscape, and life; between our daily work and the expression of its meaning; between planetary-scale drivers and humble living things” is what the report is all about.