Saturday, April 4, 2009

The American Pika and humans in general

I was reading today about how many American Pika groups are going extinct because unlike birds they are incapable of moving to better areas to live. So unless humans get breeding pairs and migrate them further north in America or even into Canada most american Pika will likely go extinct this century. All Pikas can do is to move up in elevation but as one moves up in elevation one eventually reaches tree line(no trees grow above this altitude)(usually between 7000 feet to 9000 feet inside the 50 states) above which there will be no food at all for the pika.

Also, as climates change people will of necessity move (if they live north of the Equator) further and further northward or to higher and higher elevations. When I lived on Maui I always thought it was amazing that there are so many climates on that island. At sea level there is a tropical climate but if you go up to Makawao you get an entirely different climate and any higher up than that you might need a wood stove to stay warm in winter(Maui goes up to 10,000 feet at the top of Haleakala Crater) you can have snow above 9000 feet even that close to the equator and there is also skiing on the Big Island of Hawaii.

I was just trying to illustrate that there is the up elevation alternative or the moving northward alternative or a combination of the two for humans during this century
and the next.

Obviously, if you live in the southern Hemisphere you might want to also move upward or further southward or even move to the northern part of the northern hemisphere as this century progresses. But more and more the equatorial region will become uninhabitable as this century progresses. Those that stay there likely will first move underground where is stays cooler year around or turn up the air conditioning, one of the two.

Even here in the United States it is quite common now for people to live where it is 125 degrees Fahrenheit outside in the summer. In places like Palm Springs and across the southern California deserts, and the Arizona, and New Mexico deserts these temperatures can be quite common in August and September of any year.

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