More alarmist BS

Climate change forcing critters to move up

(10-09) 18:06 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- From the mountains of Yosemite to the tropical lowlands of Costa Rica, global warming is forcing animals and plants to move to higher and higher elevations, searching for climates that have allowed them to evolve and thrive for millions of years.

The exodus from less tolerable habitats to cooler and more benign environments has been taking place for nearly a century, according scientists who scrambled over rocks and ridges, through steamy rain forests and up steep volcanic slopes to complete their painstaking surveys.

And in a few cases, the moves are taking a toll: Some mountain animals, left with smaller ranges to forage for food, may face extinction, while others are up against Darwinian competition as their new habitats intrude on already-established animal populations.

"These kinds of changes have been going on forever," said James L. Patton, a biologist at UC Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. "The only difference is that this has probably happened in our lifetime. It's the speed with which these changes are taking place that gives one pause."

As the pace of global warming quickens, change is everywhere: from glaciers melting in Greenland, to ice shelves crumbling in Antarctica, to coral reefs dying in tropic seas - and now to animal and plant life in many parts of the world.