Contemporary discussions on climate change, biodiversity, and chemicals often reveal a curious inconsistency: Talking about climate change, people tend to be concerned about environmental effects, including accelerated loss of biodiversity, while threats to health and wellbeing of our own species are perceived as much less urgent by many. In contrast, when it comes to anthropogenic chemicals, people tend to worry about their own health (hence, e.g., the booming trend for 'organic' foods as a way to avoid exposure to pesticides) rather than about impacts on other species (with a few exceptions such as the well-publicized controversy about insecticides' effects on bees). Unfortunately, such selective perception happens to misrepresent the factual situation: climate change is also predicted to cause devastating consequences for humans, while chemical pollutants are known to endanger nonhuman organisms as well.
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