Lately however, La Paz has fallen victim to the harmful effects of climate change. Everyone in my community has reported more unpredictable weather patterns in recent times, along with increasingly warmer weather. Historically, we would get nearly 11 months of rainfall every year, while nowadays the weather is far less predictable.
While this is great for someone like me who hates the rain and the cold, it has long-lasting, harmful effects on the ecosystem and jeopardizes the very thing that makes La Paz so special.
People in the community are well aware of this change and, besides the heat and rainfall, have mentioned other notable changes to the ecosystem. For example, certain birds like the Quetzal have become increasingly hard to find.
What happens is that the rising temperatures encourage animals to move into new areas--areas that reflect the climate they’re used to. Quetzals typically inhabit high elevation areas with cool temperatures, like the mountains in La Paz! However, as temperatures have gone up, other animals-- animals that prey on Quetzals-- have been forced to look for cooler areas themselves. That is to say that they start moving up in altitude. One such predator is the Toucan (the bird on the Fruit Loops box!) The Toucan is a beautiful bird that also happens to find Quetzal eggs very delicious. As temperatures have risen, Toucans have migrated to higher altitudes to find cooler temperatures. There, they come into contact with Quetzals, and this move has decreased the Quetzal population as they then fall prey to the predatory Toucans.
