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Little is known about how temperature anomalies affect people’s views about climate change. Research now shows that available information about today’s temperature, even though less relevant than evidence of global patterns, is used to formulate opinions. With experience of abnormal temperatures, people overestimate the frequency of similar past events and belief in global warming increases.
The rate at which species expand their geographic ranges in response to climate warming varies. Now research on British butterflies finds that stable or increasing abundance is a prerequisite for range expansion. This suggests that assessment of trends in abundance could help to improve predictions of the responses of species to climate change.
