Pika driven from traditional habitat by warming trend

As temperatures have risen, populations of the American pika have moved from lower elevations to cooler climes upslope.

Enlisting Endangered Species As a Tool to Combat Warming
Environment 360
by todd woody

While a high-profile battle raged over listing the polar bear as a threatened species due to melting Arctic sea ice, U.S. environmentalists were quietly building a case to protect a critter closer to home, one whose existence also seems gravely threatened by a warming world.

A pocket-sized member of the rabbit family with a distinctive squeak and large ears that frame dark eyes and a button nose, the American pika lives on rocky slopes high in alpine mountain ranges from the Sierra Nevada to the Rockies. Sporting a thick gray-brown coat, the pika does not hibernate and so maintains a high internal temperature to survive frigid winters. Because it can’t turn off its heater, the animal can die in the summer if its body temperature increases by as little as 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 F).

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Paul Krugman: Who Cooked the Planet?

Op-Ed Columnist - Who Cooked the Planet? - NYTimes.com:

By Paul Krugman

July 25, 2010

"...[I]t wasn’t the science, the scientists, or the economics that killed action on climate change. What was it?

The answer is, the usual suspects: greed and cowardice.

If you want to understand opposition to climate action, follow the money."

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Greenland glacier melt could contribute to rise in sea level

NASA eyeballs glacial melt in Greenland - Capital Weather Gang:

"...The Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier, one of the largest glaciers in Greenland, swiftly lost a 2.7-square mile chunk of ice between July 6 and 7, NASA announced late last week. The ice loss pushed the point where the glacier meets the ocean, known as the 'calving front,' nearly one mile farther inland in a single day. According to the space agency, the new calving front location is the farthest inland on record..."

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Photos Reveal Receding Himalaya Glaciers

Lens Blog - NYTimes.com:

7/16/10

New York Times

“...There’s a lot of people who either don’t understand climate change that well and the effects that it’s having, or they want to deny the effect it’s having. These pictures are worth a thousand words. We haven’t done anything to them except print them.”

David Breashears,, a senior fellow with the Center on U.S.-China Relations, referred to the exhibition, “Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya,” which opened this week at the Asia Society in Manhattan. Mr. Breashears is best known for directing the Imax film, “Everest.” In the exhibition, pictures taken as early as 1899 are placed alongside recreations by Mr. Breashears, who photographed the same places from precisely the same vantage, beginning in 2007."

See photos of receding glaciers

Polar bear in Yukon River may have hitched ride on melting ice

The Tundra Drums - Polar bear in Yukon River may have hitched ride on melting ice:

Published on July 22nd, 2010

By ALEX DEMARBAN

"...Residents in a lower Yukon River village far from typical polar bear habitat say they've seen plenty of bears, but nothing like the big, white beast that floated in the river on Tuesday.

Isaiah Charles, a state Department of Fish and Game technician, said he didn't believe the rumors that a polar bear had arrived near town, until his sister called from downriver and said she was watching it.

Charles, with his aunt and nephew in tow, jumped in a boat and traveled for 20 minutes from Emmonak. They saw the bear's head in the water.

'Sure enough it was a real polar bear,' he said. 'It was just hanging out on a sandbar, like, in the water just hanging out. It got maybe 40 yards away.'"

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