Award-winning Publication Reviews Impacts of Global Warming

           October 2006

High and Dry: Dispatches on Global Warming from the American West

 by Michelle Nijhuis

Published by High Country News

This booklet presents reprints of a series of articles published by High Country News, written by contributing editor Michelle Nijhuis.  Three of the articles included in this special collection won the 2006 Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism from the American Geophysical Union.   

The five articles and numerous sidebars cover topics ranging from increasing insect infestations, climate history detailed from the study of tree rings, small mammals that have moved up much higher in the Sierra Nevada than where they were found 100 years ago, warming winters, and the impact of snow pack decreases.   

In her article, “Attack of the Bark Beetles,” Nijhuis clarifies a complex and far-reaching topic by focusing on bark beetle infestation in Idaho, and Forest Service researcher Jesse Logan, who has followed the bark beetle for decades.  The article explains the geographic extension of the bark beetle infestation throughout the West in recent years, and examines the link between global warming and the massive infestations we are now witnessing.   

“The Ghosts of Yosemite” follows present-day zoologists working in Yosemite National Park, re-surveying areas where renowned researcher Joseph Grinnell trapped and described the small mammal fauna of the central Sierra Nevada in the early decades of the 20th century.  A team lead by University of California zoologist Jim Patton has been working since 2003 to locate and resurvey 40 sites along Grinnell’s “Yosemite Transect.”  Significant findings from the present day work include documenting the expansion of range of several low-elevation mammals into Yosemite’s relatively high-altitude environs, and the retraction of range of other mammals to even higher elevations than they were found at 100 years ago.  The correlation with warming temperatures is not lost on the researchers. Nijhuis reports, “…researcher Robert Hijmans estimates that mean minimum temperatures throughout the central Sierra rose 5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 100 years,” and “…museum Director Craig Moritz…cautions, ‘…my gut feeling is that we’ve got a whopping climate change signature.’” 

These and other articles in High and Dry help the reader to understand what's at stake as we grapple with global warming.

Order this publication for $6.95 (bulk orders available at lower rates).  To order or for more information about this publication, contact High Country News at www.hcn.org, or Marketing Coordinator JoAnn Kalenak at 800-311-5852; joann@hcn.org.