People with a lifestyle more reliant on the biosphere will be sorely affected. For example, Canadian Inuits in the Mackenzie Basin have seen an increasing temperature since the 1980s, bringing more landslides and forest fires, and reduced water availability.

Natural reserves and even protected habitats will be severely affected over the coming years due to ecosystems being sustained by a balance of natural factors (biotic and abiotic). Climate change disrupts this balance and can result in severe effects.

The Amazon and the Arctic are two of the world’s largest refugia, but even they are experiencing the consequences of climate change.

• Brazil has roughly 12% of the world’s water, but is experiencing a massive drought, and even natural reserves are suffering. The Amazon rainforest spans 670 million hectares, and stores between 90-140 billion metric tons of carbon.
• However, Brazil’s sustainability is based entirely on its ecosystem and food chain. Interruptions in the ecosystem can severely impact the country.
  • Climate change is causing a chain reaction - a positive feedback loop - entire biomes are based on the balance between the biotic and abiotic factors within the habitat; the Amazon requires water for its animals to thrive and plants to grow, and it certainly can’t be good if it dries up (over 40 000 plant species and 100 000 invertebrates alone at risk)
• The Amazon will be caught up in a set of feedback loops that could dramatically speed up the pace of forest lost and degradation.

• This threshold (‘tipping point’) will occur when Amazonian forests die and are progressively replaced by fire-prone brush and savanna (ecological tipping point), and rainfall is inhibited on a regional scale (climatic tipping point).
  • The country could face a dire scenario in which current trends in livestock, agriculture, logging expansion, fire and drought could destroy or severely damage 55% of the Amazon rainforest by the year 2030.

• The Amazon’s hydrological engine plays a major role in maintaining the global and regional climate. Evapotranspiration and the local water cycle influences world climate and the circulation of ocean currents. However, the rapid loss of trees and drying of the climate is diminishing its effectiveness.
  • The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a climatic phenomenon which influences much of the climatic variability in Latin America. Human-induced climate change is expected to increase their frequency in the future, increasing dry conditions in northeast Brazil, the northern Amazon, the Peruvian-Bolivian Altiplano, and Pacific coast of Central America.
  • Deforestation, in addition to limiting animal habitats, causes a dramatic change in rainfall patterns and distribution.
• Caused by climate change, but quickened by deforestation of the Amazon and the Atlantic forest - these trees are responsible for humidifying the air, trapping water, absorbing carbon dioxide, etc.
  • Forest losses in the Amazon biome averaged 1.4 million hectares per year from 2001-2012, resulting in a total loss of 17.7 million hectares, but this number could increase to 48 million hectares per year from 2012-2030 (if this trend continues, then 85% of the forest would be without trees by the next century).

• By the year 2050, temperatures in the Amazon will increase by 2 to 3°C, and a decrease in rainfall during its elongating dry months will lead to further habitat destruction and droughts.
  • Expected effects include degradation of freshwater systems, loss of ecologically and agriculturally valuable soils, increased erosion, decreased agricultural yields, increased insect infestation, and spread of infectious diseases.
  • Research shows that a warmer and drier environment for the region could convert from 30% up to 60% of the Amazon rainforest into a dry savanna.

• The Amazon, however, has a lower vulnerability. A large reason for its worsening state is the large amount of deforestation done by other countries, especially Brazil.
  • Most recent opinion polls show that most Brazilians support forest conservation and that international buyers do not wish to invest in products associated with it.
  • Underused lands are available for farming potential, the main reason for deforestation - with greater cattle management, for example, the country could release 56 million hectares for cropland expansion while still maintaining ressources.
  • Coalitions of environmental NGOs, especially WWF and the Zero Deforestation Working Group, have strived to develop practical solutions (e.g. initiatives such as “A Pathway to Zero Deforestation in the Amazon”).

• The Arctic is warming at a rate of almost twice the global average, and this rate will only increase in time. Present day temperatures are roughly 2.3°C higher than average, and with that, much of the Arctic and the Greenland ice sheet is experiencing rapid meltdown.
  • The lessening ice is a worrying issue not only for the diminishing level of albedo it offers, but also as a diminishing habitat for animals that like in the polar conditions.
  • This is also leading to a melting of permafrost, releasing methane gases into the air and accelerating climate change.

• Ice-associated life in the Arctic will suffer if summer sea ice is destroyed. It acts as a major route for the Inuit people, a habitat for more than 25% of the world’s Pelagic polar bears, and a resting and breeding ground for many of the animals within the ecosystem, such as penguins.
  • Freezing rain and climate shifts are covering snowy grasslands with ice - a detrimental effect to the caribou and reindeer that depend on plants for food.
  • Sea ice allows seabirds to rest and fish. The result of the large-scale melting is and equally large migration and resulting starvation, and the number of ivory gulfs in Canada has already dropped by 90%.
  • Seals, a main food source for polar bears, are easiest to hunt when resting on the floating ice, as well, but the melting can result in kilometers of snow without a single source of food for the bears and their cubs.
• In addition, the base of the food chain, microscopic algae in the marine ecosystem, will be disrupted and even killed by the warming climate, especially considering the lack of shade and albedo provided by the dwindling supply of ice.
  • A chain reaction leading to less cod and fish, which drives away animals like seals and penguins further and further north until they cannot go any further to escape the heat and melting ice caps. The entire Arctic ecosystem will be at risk.
• Scientists have found that over half of the tundra in the Arctic would green by 2050, surrounded with darker, coniferous trees incapable of producing as high of an albedo level - once again increasing the effects of climate change.

• NGOs like WWF are attempting to limit climate change along with the help of many countries, but there is not much they can do to ensure those areas are protected. Simply claiming land does not benefit the Arctic as it would the Amazon, as the ice would melt either way when exposed to harsher climates, not to mention the positive feedback loop rendering the entire ordeal much more difficult. In addition, the melting ice would also attract potential human activity, such as oil exploitation, which would only further destroy the area’s biodiversity.