Bark-beetle driven wildfires are a vicious climate cycle
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- MeganMcKenzie
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more from Green:
http://climateprogress.org/2008/09/16/oldest-utah-newspaper-bark-beet...
Deseret News, owned by the Mormon Church and “usually described as moderate to conservative” may have begun the slow march toward climate reality. A story this month titled, “Bark beetles are feasting on Utah forests” beginsA vicious cycle is brewing in Utah: Bark beetles are killing a lot of trees in the state. Dead trees are fuel for wildfires, which experts say contributes to global warming. And climate change is now being blamed for an increased population of bark beetles.
The Dixie National Forest bears one of the most obvious signs in Utah of the mark being left by a tiny tree predator commonly known as the bark beetle, a wood-boring insect that in large enough numbers can decimate an entire forest.
“We’re talking hundreds of thousands of acres they have basically been wiped out — pretty much the entire spruce component in the Dixie National Forest,” said Colleen Keyes, forest-health program manager for Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands. “It’s really something to see. You would be very surprised. It’s hard to describe until you see it — it’s just dead trees as far as the eye can see.”
The fact that bark beetles wipe out whole species of trees or are a vicious climate cycle is not suprising to Climate Progress readers (see “Nature on stunning new climate feedback: Beetle tree kill releases more carbon than fires” and “Climate-Driven Pest Devours N. American Forests“) — or to our neighbors to the north.
“The pine beetle infestation is the first major climate change crisis in Canada” notes Doug McArthur, a professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. The pests are “projected to kill 80 per cent of merchantable and susceptible lodgepole pine” in parts of British Columbia within 10 years — and that’s why the harvest levels in the region have been “increased significantly.”
No surprise, then, that the disaster is even bigger in our most northern state, which just happens to be run by a global warming denier. As Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) explained two years ago:
Warmer, drier air, has allowed the voracious spruce bark beetle to migrate north, moving through our forests in the south-central part of the state. At last count, over three million acres of forest land has been devastated by the beetle, providing dry fuel for outbreaks of enormous wild fires. To give you some perspective, that is almost the size of Connecticut.
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AveryMoore
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When a threat to nature turns into economic losses the media somehow revives from its deep coma and actually informs the public.
Once again money-interest drives anti-environmentalists into a corner.
- 1 year ago
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AveryMoore
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karnathis
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Bark beetles are spreading as the climate warms. Our forests are being destroyed. What are we going to do to stop this warming of our earthly home? If we don't take every action that is environmentally feasible we are going to be suffering as are all the wildlife and our forests.
- 1 year ago
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karnathis
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MeganMcKenzie
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karnathis:
Sometimes I wonder if anyone is listening
- 1 year ago
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MeganMcKenzie
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jubal
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We already knew that, but thankfully the rest are starting to wake up.
Our mother needs us desperately to cherish her once again.
- 1 year ago
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jubal
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MeganMcKenzie
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When conservative newspapers start reporting stories and attributing it to global warming you gotta know we have a crisis!
- 1 year ago
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MeganMcKenzie
