Hear the sound of chewing out in our vast forests of lodgepole pine, spruce and fir, the chewing that’s already destroyed half the commercial timber in important regions like British Columbia? That’s the sound of climate change, says biologist Reese Halter. Global warming in the form of a bark beetle.
Halter’s short but disturbing new book, “The Insatiable Bark Beetle,” addresses one of the biggest and most visible issues facing global forests, and particularly the relatively large forests left in the U.S. and Canada. As winters grow warmer and summers drier, the West’s evergreen forests are being eaten alive. And the infestation is not showing any signs of slowing.
Winter temperatures are plummeting in the US at a rate of more than forty degrees per century.
CONTIGUOUS UNITED STATES Climate Summary
Exactly the same story as 90 years ago. The hysterical author has no idea what he is talking about.
Morning Bulletin Friday 27 June 1924
THE GIANT KILLER. AMERICAN PINE BEETLE.
Science and brawn are to-day working together in systematic haste in the heart of the yellow-pine forests of Southern Oregon and Northern California to save ten billion feet of merchantable timber from the relentless ravages of the Western pine beetle, writes the New York “Outlook.” During the last ten years this tiny beetle (Dendroctonus brevicomis) has destroyed a total of 1,500,000,000 feet of timber in unquestionably the finest stand of yellow pine on the Pacific coast of the United States.
grew up in the central interior of BC, and remember in the 60′s a lumber company wanted to go in and clear cut an area infected by beetle kill and surrounding areas to stop its spread…and the eco-warriors prevented that … and that was during the ‘cold’ years too….wish I could find that newpaper article…
You know I was sceptical because CO2 forcing has been at record levels for the last decade and there has been no statically significant warming for 15 years. ARGO can’t find that ocean warming predicted by the models… no obvious (but critical water vapour trend), missing hotspot, and ERBE seems to be showing the opposite of what models predicted… all the best data pointing in the wrong direction, yet… now that a biologist has explained to me that a rampant beetle is linked to CAGW I’ve changed my mind and I’m sold again.
The same scare was propagated in the 1980s regarding the Black Forest in Germany which by now should be completely devoid of trees and look like the dark side of the moon if the alarmists had been right. In the end they hung up pheromone traps and made sure to chop down and remove the dead trees. Everything is just fine.
We have computer models now though…. come on…
LOL. That quote is so full of untruths that it is hilarious.
Yes, the Mt PINE beetle attacking SPRUCE and FIR forests! LOL. It is true that during the recent hyper-epidemics in BC that there were so many beetles that they started attacking some spruce and fir trees, that was a freak and very temporary occurence and not sustainable because… PINE trees are the only viable host of Mt PINE beetles.
Any ‘expert’ who makes such ridiculous claims has zero idea of what the term ‘biodiversity’ or actually represents.
I actually met this guy. He is a would-be ‘champion of the wild’ who married a rich chick to support his lifestyle. I guess she believes what he says.
Beetles will inherit the earth, so if you are a Green I guess it’s appropriate to worship them.
But this beetle’s bite is worse than it’s bark!
At least it didn’t get changed into a newt.