Biologist Jeremy Wade urges people to pay attention as he details scariest impact of climate change
River Monsters star Jeremy Wade has revealed just how seriously the 'behavior of rivers' impacts us, and why we've been late to pay attention to how 'dangerous' climate change truly is.
The British television presenter, biologist, angler, adventurer and author has experienced a lot in his time, including encountering electric eels, an 80-pound arapaima, and a lightning strike during the filming of his show River Monsters.
And his studying of such creatures and their environments has led Wade to resolve the 'scariest impact of climate change' he's witnessed lies within the changing 'behavior' of rivers.
In discussion with LADbible's Honesty Box, Wade explained while rivers 'tend to vary in their behaviour from one part of the year to another, particularly in the tropics', reports are emerging the behavior is 'changing' and the impact of this extends all the way to farmers and the food we put on our very tables - well, if there still ends up being food to do so.
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How the behavior of rivers is 'changing' and impacting farmers
Wade explained the 'actual predictability of the high and low water, it's changing' and 'a lot of this is to do with changing rainfall patterns'.
"What we're tending to get is long periods of dry and then sudden downpours on baked earth," he continued.
"So the whole hydrological cycle is changing. So this has been very apparent in the tropics for a number of years, but, you know, we're noticing it now."
And this matters to the everyday Tom, Dick, and Harry, because if the river behaves differently, farmers' crops end up impacted too - the crops 'getting worse'.
'We weren't paying enough attention when the early signs were happening'
Wade reports crops 'either shrivelling' or 'getting ruined by floods' which ultimately means that food becomes 'less available, more expensive' and less accessible to all.
Wade warns: "We weren't paying enough attention when the early signs were happening, and we are starting to pay attention to this now, not just how we might prevent it, but how we might mitigate it."
But what sort of river behavior is optimal if we're going to ensure everyone has enough food?
Well, Wade details that rivers 'tend to vary in their behaviour from one part of the year to another, particularly in the tropics' where there's a wet and dry season. And when it comes to fishing, there's certain conditions fishermen will keep a keen eye out for.
It's all about 'picking the right time'
"When you are fishing, you are normally looking for a very particular stage of the water. And often in the tropics, you want low water because, you know, the fish are going to be concentrated," he explained.
In the Amazon, the river level can 'go up like 15 metres' to about 45 or 50 feet, flooding 'huge areas of forest' which 'disperses' fish making them 'really hard to find, really hard to catch'.
Instead, fishermen will wait and 'pick the right time' to go out and try and secure a successful catch.
"And this is not just anglers like me, but local, you know, indigenous fishermen, they watch the river," Wade added.
While there's 'always a bit of variation,' Wade noted the seasonal changes are 'predictable up to a point' - as long as climate change doesn't keep interfering that is.
Elsewhere in the Honesty Box episode, Wade revealed what he believes to be the most dangerous freshwater animal.
And that is the hippopotamus.
"I would say hippo," he said. "It's vegetarian. And the dangerous thing about hippos is that they can just be sitting there under the water, and, without intending to, you can invade their personal space.
"So if you paddle on top of them, they're going to sort of rear up out of the water, tip your canoe over and bite you in half. They've got very big teeth. Slight artistic licence.
"They're not going to bite you in half. But they've got teeth about that long. And there's a very good chance you won't survive."
Topics: Weather, Environment, World News, Climate Change, Nature
Poppy Bilderbeck
