A front-page story in
today's Washington Post details the devastation on Canada's forests by the mountain pine beetle.
Surveys show the beetle has infested 21 million acres and killed 411 million cubic feet of trees -- double the annual take by all the loggers in Canada. In seven years or sooner, the Forest Service predicts, that kill will nearly triple and 80 percent of the pines in the central British Columbia forest will be dead.
The red trees in the image below depicts the dead trees. Devastation can be hauntingly beautiful. Though the red is only temporary, so the beauty is fleeting.
(Courtesy Of Leo Rankin, British)
But the real story is that this is not just another isolated outbreak but the result of a warmer climate that is allowing the beetle to thrive. In past years, the beetle would have been killed off by a deep freeze. But with the onset of global warming, the beetle is expanding its reach.
I wonder at what point every environmental issue will take a back seat to global warming. Will it be long before organizations working to protect forests, oceans or endangered species will drop their current efforts to focus more broadly on global warming?
Given the sweeping impacts we are already seeing—from the extinction of frogs to the decimation of forests—you would think it would be a necessary strategy.