LA Weekly

I'm posting the San Francisco Chronicle version of Michelle Nijhuis' tragically beautiful and mind-bending story about the impact of climate change on the critters of Yosemite only because the longer High Country News version requires a subscription. But I highly recommend getting the HCN subscription (30 days free!) just to read the whole piece, in which she compares the findings of a early 20th-century researcher, Joseph Grinnell, with the research of a modern-day team led by Berkeley professor James Patton (who uses the same techniques and tools as Grinnell did -- a process Nijhuis describes beautifully):

On the east side of the Sierra, Grinnell and his assistants only saw piñon mice below 7,000 feet, a finding confirmed by other researchers throughout the central part of the range. Patton's group found numerous mice frolicking in the talus slopes of Lyell Canyon, 10,200 feet above sea level and about eight miles from the nearest Grinnell sighting. The distance was too great to be the work of just a few wandering individuals; it was clear to Patton that the range of the piñon mouse, and its habitat, were far different now than in 1915.

Some rodents have moved up; others breed earlier; some have disappeared. It's a fascinating story, and elegantly written.

All this, and yet "the U.S. is determined to undermine the Montreal conference" on climate change, according to this article in the Toronto Star.

Speaking of the warming planet, if you live in Los Angeles, don't forget about Friday's event with Jared Diamond and Peter Sellars at the Natural History Musuem. Details here. It's epic.

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