Scientists have over the years warned people of the effects that climate change might have on humans, the environment and animals in the future. 

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According to Dr Susana Clusella-Trullas, from the Stellenbosch University (SU), we need to continuously improve our ability to predict and mitigate the effects of climate change. 

In order to be able to predict animals’ vulnerability when it comes to climate change, Clusella-Trullas says that testing would require the right tools and knowing which tools to apply in a specific situation is a challenging enterprise.

READ: How to avoid contributing to #ClimateChange 

“There are different approaches that can be used to predict the vulnerability of farm animals or animals in general. Some [approaches] are very complicated in the way that they require a lot of information. There are also other approaches that are more simplistic…

“The approach basically consists of knowing some of the temperature thresholds that some of the animals can experience, for example at what temperature a particular animal will not be able to grow or reproduce any longer. We then compare that to the temperature that they’re experiencing,” explains Clusella-Trullas.

She further adds that they look at the differences between what the animal can respond to and the temperatures experienced and then they will be able to see how much of a buffer there is.

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Clusella-Trullas says that climate change can only be slowed down when everyone puts in the effort. Some of her advice on how to do this include walking or riding a bicycle – if possible - instead of using a vehicle; use less electricity as possible; shop less at shops that use a lot of packaging. “They seem very small, but I think if every person just use these little actions it becomes a much larger action overall.”

She says that farmers can help contribute to slow down climate change by maintaining sustainable production without it having negative effects on the ecosystems that they are working on.

Clusella-Trullas is leading a team of scientists from SU and the University of Melbourne in Australia, and together they have made several proposals on how to improve the current, widely adopted thermal vulnerability index in a recent publication in the high profile journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

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