Islands in the Sky

Explanation: On a recent flight up the fog-enshrouded Central Valley of California, I spied what appeared to be an archipelago of mountain peaks afloat in the clouds. Islands in the sky! (Not to be confused with the so-called Sky Islands of southern Arizona and northern Mexico).

These are the peaks of Sutter Buttes, an isolated set of volcanic domes protruding from the Central Valley floor and sometimes called the world's smallest mountain range, and a de facto state park.

Although I found the scene having a stark beauty, it more reminded me of the modern plight of many plant and animal species occurring in isolated mountain and alpine situations under climate change, where regional warming and drying are forcing organisms to move, if they can, to higher and higher elevations to find suitable habitat and environmental conditions ... becoming more and more isolated from other populations of their kind ... until they can move upward no further, and become locally (or even regionally) extinct.

So, as we enter this new year, may this scene remind us all of our duties, as self-assigned managers of Earth's environment, to be mindful of our daily habits that can greatly affect the climate, and the ecosystems, in which we live ... including my own "flying carbon footprint."

Note: And yes, EPOW skipped last week's entry -- with apologies -- as I was one of the tens of thousands of travelers subjected to unexpected airline delays and cancellations over the holidays ... due to major ice and snow storm events at national scales ... another reminder of how weather extremes, and climate trends, are affecting, and are affected by, our lives.

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week