United States: Land of the Python

In case you haven't wrapped your mind around the whole global warming thing yet, consider this: The U.S. Geological Survey reports that new climate maps show that roughly a third of the United States could provide favorable conditions for Burmese pythons if current trends hold.

Such pythons were discovered in the Florida Everglades in 2003 -- presumably they were pets released into the wild -- and have been spreading ever since. Global warming models indicate that areas in the United States that would be "climate matches" for the snakes, which live naturally from Pakistan to Indonesia, could significantly expand by the end of this century.