Climate regions make a huge impact on the world. To begin with, biodiversity depends on having various climates, ranging from mostly hot to mostly cold, to support a full range of plants and animals. This is one reason why global warming is such a problem, as it is actually beginning to eliminate one climate through the melting of ice in the Arctic and Antarctica. Some animals depend on extreme cold and the influence that has on the environment.
Climate regions are also vitally important to human culture. Prior to globalization, people led drastically different lives because of climates. They ate different food, wore different types of clothing, and lived in different types of homes. This happens because different climates make different raw materials available.
Climate regions have also had an effect on human history and politics. For example, European expansion and colonization were influenced in part by the drive to get spices and tea, items that did not grow in northern climates. Christopher Columbus was attempting to get to India by a different route for this purpose when he ran into an entirely new-to-him continent.
It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of climate regions, as they are such an integral part of the world in which we live.
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