Tucked away on the bottom of the front page of the Day this morning was a tiny little article about the mass extinctions of lizards due to global warming. Here’s a fuller treatment at the National Geographic., though it doesn’t mention something pointed out in the Day: that the mass extinction of these lizards will have profound effects up and down the food chain.
Back before all of our coal mines were safe, they kept canaries in cages in the mines. If the canary died, it meant that the air was becoming unsafe to breathe. It struck me that this lizard die off is yet another dead canary, which we ignore (and we will ignore it) at our peril. By rights, it should have been the lead story in the Day and every other paper, since the long term impact of this rapid species die off will be devastating. In its own way it’s worse than the oil spill.
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