So far in this year’s presidential campaign we’ve heard about sexism, ageism, racism, and other social ills. Well, what about phytoism?  How come it’s socially acceptable to put down plants? Why is it elitist to eat arugula (or frequent “fern bars,” or drink beverages made from coffee beans), but not elitist to dine on a trophy animal? As one of my favorite bloggers pointed out today, arugula is available at any local McDonalds, but there isn’t even a website that sells moose meat, which all of a sudden is considered as American as Thanksgiving turkey.

KQED radio has produced an interesting follow-up to the recent Plos One paper predicting that climate change will have a dire impact on redwoods and other plants that are endemic to California, America’s biodiversity hotspot — plants found nowhere else in the world. (My blog on the paper is here.) A KQED reporter interviews the authors and finds they’re even more pessimistic than they were when they wrote the paper. One sobering prediction: Most of California’s endemic plants will die if global warming continues at its present pace. At the end of the century, redwoods could still be growing in California because adult trees are so long-lived. But since no seedlings will be able to survive, these adults will be the last redwoods on earth, a forest of the “living dead.”

On the KQED website you’ll also find an interesting slide show based on the radio interview.