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The Climate Question

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Why we find it so hard to save our own planet, and how we might change that.

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The Climate Question: Can animals evolve to deal with climate change?

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19/09/2022 GMT

Can animals evolve to deal with climate change?

BBC World Service - The Climate Question, Can animals evolve to deal with climate change?

What role can evolution play in in helping animals survive in a warming world?

Can animals evolve quickly enough to survive and even thrive on a warmer planet?

As climate change brings rising temperatures and shifting patterns of rainfall, animals are adapting to keep pace. Bird’s bodies are growing smaller, their wingspan longer, lizards are growing larger thumb pads to help them grip more tightly in hurricane strength winds, beak size is changing.  

We visit the Galapagos, where evolution was first discovered by Charles Darwin, to investigate the many ways the behaviour and physiology of animals are changing to survive the impact of climate change. But can they do it quickly enough? 

First broadcast – 14 March 2022 

Presenters Jordan Dunbar and Kate Lamble are joined by: 
Kiyoko Gotanda, Assistant Professor at Brock University 
Ramiro Tomala, Expedition leader, Metropolitan Touring in the Galapagos 
Thor Hanson, conservationist and author of Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid 
Anne Charmantier, Director of Research at Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Montpellier 

With thanks to research carried out by Colin Donihue of Institute at Brown for Environment and Society. 

Producer: Dearbhail Starr 
Reporter: Mark Stratton 
Series Producer: Alex Lewis 
Editor: Nicola Addyman 
Production Coordinators: Sophie Hill and Siobhan Reed 
Sound Engineer: Tom Brignell

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The Climate Question

Can animals evolve to deal with climate change?

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