IN THE DEBATE about global warming, we forget at our peril the role of ecosystems in giving us a climate we can live with. Life co-evolving with our planet over thousands of millions of years has created an environment apt for millions upon millions of species, from bacteria to the massive whale or towering redwood trees. In its totality and working together through complex and symbiotic relationships, life gives us a relatively stable climate, modifying the amount of heat stored at the Earth’s surface, regulating the clouds that bring rain to the continents, and changing the colour of the Earth ...
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