An unseasonably warm October full of tweets about the desire to drink hot chocolate and wear sweaters at the end of a long summer serves as a reminder of the drought’s effect. Much more serious than our tired summer wardrobe is the drastic power of the drought on our environment.  
When legendary explorer John Muir first set foot in what is now Yosemite National Park, Lyell Glacier was the area’s largest. Now, according to Peter Devine, a naturalist for the Yosemite Conservancy, in a recent interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, the glacier’s size has decreased by approximately 80 percent in surface area and 90 percent in volume since 1883.
Park geologist Greg Stock, also interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle, warned that the glacier, located near Donohue Pass, could melt and disappear entirely within the next five years if this trend of high temperatures at that elevation does not cease. 
“Pretty soon, there won’t be any ice here at all, just a rubble-strewn basin. I’m starting to think like a biologist, somebody who is studying an endangered species, something that can disappear,” said Stock. 
While we sip our hot chocolate under the blast of our air conditioners, let’s hope for a cold, wet winter, and a future trip to see Lyell Glacier past 2020.