California's Sierra-Nevada: Is It Hot Up Here, Or Is It Just Me?
There is a very graphic, and very effective interactive map of the Sierra-Nevada in the Sacramento Bee showing the impact of global climate change on this complex eco-system that is crucial for the health of a goodly portion of the left edge of the North America Plate (or at least until it chips off into the Pacific after the next "Big One").
Of all the photos and graphs of rising average temperatures, disappearing snowpack, and dying pine trees, there was one piece about the Alpine chipmunk (Tamias alpinus) that was particular disturbing. Here is what it says:
This rare chipmunk has undergone a dramatic reduction in Yosemite. Found in lodgepole pine forests, it now lives in the talus slopes above the tree line. Its range has shifted upslope 1,900 feet. Population is collapsing.
The devastation of these small creatures is a harbinger of things to come. Yet, we humans seem impervious to the simple and clear assertion that as Tamis alpinus goes, so goes Homo sapiens.