Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Depressing Climate Change News of the Day

Can I just shoot myself rather than witness the destruction of the Earth?

Grizzly bears in Yellowstone face extinction because of the widespread death of the whitebark pine. Global warming has created great conditions for the spread of the pine beetle. Earlier this decade, I watched as these bugs decimated northern New Mexico's population of piƱon pine. Certain regions of the forests are full of dead trees today. It will take 100 years or so for those trees to grow back.

To make things worse, scientists fear that the bark beetle will be able to spread as far north as central Canada. This would allow the beetle to reach the forests that cross that nation and spread east and south. The trees of the eastern US have no resistance to this bug. If it reaches those forests, the destruction will be horrifying.

Good times.