Jim Nickelson

Biodiversity in Great Sand Dunes National Park is significantly less than it was a century ago, as bird species failed to adapt quickly enough and the streams in the park dried up, effectively ending aquatic life in the park. Different bird species have now found the park, though, and bird biodiversity is beginning to increase again. The drier climate, of course, means that the streams and fish will not similarly recover.

This section of the Painted Hills reveals an intricate visual record of the climate change that occurred 30-35 million years ago with a shift from warmer, wetter tropical conditions (the red bands of color) to cooler, drier temperate conditions (the lighter bands). The Painted Hills themselves have survived the warmer climate relatively intact (unlike the surrounding area), providing a wonderful geological record of much of the 66 million years between the Fifth Extinction and the ongoing Sixth Extinction.

The bison of Theodore Roosevelt National Park are one of the few success stories of the Sixth Extinction, as park managers have been able to preserve a transplanted bison population in the face of the hotter, drier climate. The park has served as an enclave for relocated bison populations from warmer states, as populations were challenged by increased disease spread as bison congregated at the vanishing number of water sources.

Arizona suffered more than any other state as the Colorado River dried up by the end of the twenty-first century. The loss of this water combined with brutally higher temperatures, rampant wildfires, and long-term droughts forced the mass exodus of population from Arizona to other states and ultimately the formation of the Southwest Exclusionary Zone, forcing relocation of the last holdouts (except for the remnants in the self-described 'Flagstaff Free State').

The Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens are now operated by the state of Northern California instead of privately as they were in 2019, as the former state of California acquired lands for preservation throughout the late twenty-first century as part of its effort to combat global warming. After the breakup of California in the Water Troubles late last century, the gardens were also the temporary home of climate refugees, first from Pacific island nations and later from the former Arizona.

The loss of the redwoods to the warmer climate, ferocious wildfires, and vandalism by Carbon Boys extremists is one of the greatest tragedies of the Sixth Extinction. The redwoods survived 100 million years of natural climate changes as a species and each could live for thousands of years, but the rapidity of the Sixth Extinction overwhelmed their formidable adaptability. Other plants dependent upon the microclimates produced by redwood forests also suffered, such as the lesser-known redwood sorrel.

With average temperatures here being 12 °F higher than during the Anthropocene Surveys, the Saguaro National Park region (and most of the former Arizona) has become uninhabitable for both humans and its namesake species. You can still find a few remnants of the iconic saguaro cactus during winter visits, but scientists expect the saguaro to go extinct soon as they have not adapted quickly enough to the rapidly changing climate.

The shimmering yellow foliage of the aspen forests of the American West were one of the biggest drivers of tourism in that region in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The massive die-offs of the aspens that started in the 2050’s because of the hotter and drier conditions have dramatically lowered the aspen population throughout the Rocky Mountain region, but visitors can still find a few intact groves at higher altitudes.

The tide pools and pebble beaches of Point Lobos attracted generations of visitors and artists in previous centuries, but the dramatic rise of the Pacific Ocean has left most of the iconic beaches of Point Lobos now completely immersed even at low tide.

Many of the fauna of 2019 have survived to the present day (including managed bison and prairie dog populations), but others such as Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep and the now-extinct black-footed ferret did not survive the transition to a hotter and drier climate.

Oceans absorbed much of the heat from rising air temperatures, and warmer oceans led to species eradication and movement of species towards the poles, disrupting fisheries around the world and leading to widespread fishing bans. Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased acidification of the oceans, leading to the extinction of coral reefs everywhere.

Snow goose populations have vacillated widely because of the loss, and sometimes gain, of breeding grounds and food sources as the climate has changed. When populations have boomed, the geese tend to devastate their breeding grounds, impacting many species. During a boom, the snow geese served as a temporary boost to the diet of polar bears in Canada’s Cape Churchill peninsula, until loss of habitat doomed polar bears to extinction late last century.