How animals and plants are responding to climate change; the new greenhouse gas climate rule

Biologist Thor Hanson discusses his book 'Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid' about how the warming climate is forcing animals and plants to move, adapt or go extinct.

Listen 49:00

Climate change is forcing animals and plants around the world to adapt to the warming environment or face possible extinction. In his new book, Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid, biologist THOR HANSON looks at the ingenious ways nature is responding to the hotter planet and the lessons humans can take from their survival strategies. Hanson describes anole lizards that have rapidly evolved stronger arms and bigger toes to help them cling to trees during hurricanes, Humbolt squid that now mature twice as fast and grow to only half the size because of warming waters and Arctic dovekies who lost access to plankton because of melting ice but discovered a rich source of plankton just a five-minute flight away. This hour, we’ll talk with Hanson about the plants and animals that are able to move and adapt, and tragically, those that aren’t. But first, the Biden administration issued a major new climate rule limiting the use and production of hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs, greenhouse gases commonly used in refrigeration and air conditioning. The Washington Post’s JULIET EILPERIN will fill us in on the EPA’s new order and its significance.

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