Climate change as a multiplier of existing environmental threats

Goal 13 calls for “urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.” Ecologists are uniquely poised to help society anticipate and respond to climate change impacts. Rather than viewing climate change as a new environmental problem, we should start by asking how climate change may amplify or ameliorate existing environmental threats, including droughts and floods, wildfires and biological invasions, which climate change is already altering. This strategy will focus us on the most important near-term threats, leverage our existing knowledge, and facilitate communication with diverse populations