Adapt or die: what the natural world can teach us about climate change

Climate change may be the central challenge of our century, but almost all attention has focused on its consequences for one organism: Homo sapiens. In an original, wide-ranging and carefully researched book, the American biologist Thor Hanson addresses its implications for the rest of life.

Rather than overwhelming us with a sense of catastrophe, he adopts a balanced approach. He doesn’t baulk at pointing out that plants and animals are showing signs of stress — indeed one of his conclusions is that climate change isn’t imminent: the consequences are everywhere right now. But his book documents how many species, from butterflies to butterflyfish, are showing remarkable resilience.

He reminds us that the choices open to most species are few: they can flee, hide or adapt. The evidence for the first is now overwhelming, with biologists calculating that up to 85 per cent of the Earth’s wildlife is on the move. A single example is the speckled wood butterfly, which has spread since the 1920s from strongholds in south-west England and lowland Wales to northern Scotland.