The fact that the global ecosystems form broad latitudinal belts is mostly because of climatic reasons. It works very simply, the shape of the Earth doesn't allow the sun to heat up the surface equally in every place, so on the equator and around it the sun heats up the Earth the most, as the latitude changes the sun rays become weaker and weaker because they fall at a smaller angle and are dispersing much more, this forms the different climatic regions on Earth thus creating different ecosystems with it, ecosystems that have their borders mostly on the lines of change in climate from one region to another, so we mostly have latitudinal belts of ecosystems.
Found at the lowest point of a large drainage area, these seasonal, marsh-like ponds collect and store water from rain and runoff. Unlike vernal pools, playas generally fill when temperatures are unsuitable for plant growth, and often the water is salty, alkali or both.
source- google
Weather. This includes factors like temperature, humidity, wind speed, etc.
Well this is basically how I would explain this to him
There is really no reason to be worried this isn't a good thing but it ie also not a bad thing either basically the earths atmosphere is changing and the titonic plates are moving so the earths crust will recreate new states and make more islands like hawaii