Sea level rise causes local extinction

As out-of-control heat cooks our planet, shattering temperature records for the last 13 consecutive months, it melts polar ice and raises sea levels. Most people are familiar with how this works, but we typically only think of the consequences of sea level rise as threatening to drown Miami, for example. But extinction is also a factor, as evidenced by recent news that the United States has suffered its first-ever local extinction as a result of sea levels rising. The victim is the iconic 20-foot tall Key Largo tree cactus (Pilosocereus millspaughii).

The prickly behemoth — encased in light green skin and sporting cream-colored, garlic scented flowers — was first discovered in 1992, according to the study published in the Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas. From an initial population of more than 150 stems in the Florida Keys, the once-thriving Key Largo tree cacti began dwindling due to salt water intrusion, soil depletion, intensified hurricanes and unusually high tides, all of which are either caused or exacerbated by global warming. As a result, the Key Largo tree cactus is now locally extinct from both the Florida Keys and the United States as a whole, though other related cacti are indigenous to Cuba and the Bahamas.