Climate change driving pika to extinction

The American pika, a small cousin of the rabbit, may be on the verge of extinction in the Great Basin, the high desert centered in Nevada.

Donald Grayson of the University of Washington has found by studying archaeological sites that the pika has moved higher and higher in the mountains. His report is published in the current issue of the Journal of Biogeography.

Grayson blames climate change and human activity. He found that many former populations of pikas are extinct.

"Today, the Great Basin pika is totally isolated on separated mountain ranges and there is no way one of these populations can get to another," said Grayson. "They don't have much up-slope habitat left."

Grayson said that researchers from the University of California Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Biology have made similar findings. They discovered that pikas were living at around 7,800 feet in the early 1900s but can now be found no lower than 9,500 feet in Yosemite.



http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20051229-045310-2208r

all over. God Damn bush & cheney and the rest. Hope they choke on their money.

That's a cute little animal.

The GOP changed it to Climate Change - I'll never use that term.

progressives picked up on the term to explain why global warming may cause some areas to actually freeze - like most of europe if the Atlantic conveyor stops, which looks like it may soon. They said Milan Italy is the same latitude as Montreal. That surprised me.

association of Global Warming with man made to that of nature ala - Global Climate Change.

The dolts who say "well geez it sure is cold here, global warming, hahaha! Right!"

I still use "warming" mostly but if I know I'm addressing a moron, I'll use "climate change."

Things have gone to hell in a hand basket since this corrupt bunch have been in the whitehouse. We cannot get impeachment started too soon. Three more years is too long....

Sigh. It would have been better to have avoided the whole thing in 2000. President-elected Al Gore would have been a fine environmental President, if seated, maybe even a great environmental President.

But, as Macbeth remarked after murdering Duncan, "What's done cannot be undone." Of course we all recall what happened to Macbeth.

It's been nauseating to watch all the media pat themselves on the back about how hard-hitting they're all being with BushCo these days, seeing as how it was their own goddamned "entertainment-tonite" coverage of the 2000 campaign that installed Bush in the White House.