Beetle Infestations, Global Warming: Connecting the Dots

New West: "Like wildfire, periodic beetle infestations are a part of the natural life-cycle of Western forests, especially in lodgepole pine cover that has grown far too dense in the era of total fire suppression. Indirectly, though, the beetle invasion has been intensified by the hotter, drier climate."

But no mention of global warming, despite countless scientific links tracing infestations in Alaska, California and elsewhere to the planet's rising temperature.

Any journalistic account of a natural cycle that does not incorporate potential impacts from global warming (even if irrelevant, it should be stated so readers know the reporter has a clue) has to be discredited at this point in the game. I still scratch my head in wonderment: What were the reporter and his/her editors thinking? Isn't the first question on the reader's mind: Wow, I wonder if global warming is causing this?

Compare High Country News' bona fide investigative report from more than two years ago: "Building on the work of other beetle researchers, Logan, Utah State University mathematician Jim Powell, and Canadian entomologist Jacques Régnière used the station’s field data to create a complex computer model of beetle behavior. The model showed that, most of the time, mountain pine beetles just couldn’t get it together at very high elevations. The cold temperatures made it impossible for them to complete their life cycle in one year, forcing them to confront a second winter at a vulnerable point in their development...

"When temperatures hit two degrees Celsius higher than the average conditions at one of their whitebark pine study sites, prospects for the beetles improved dramatically. Beetles raced through a one-year life cycle at higher elevations. They also synchronized their emergence, allowing them to join forces and overwhelm tree defenses. High-mountain mass attack — and mass tree death — suddenly became possible...

""When I see outbreaks intensify in the lodgepole pine, it’s an interesting ecological event," says Logan. "When I see a 700-year-old whitebark pine go down, I have a completely different reaction. It breaks my heart."

When I see journalistic accounts that don't connect the dots for the reader, it breaks my heart.

global warming ecological footprint carbon footprint GreenforGood sustainability green lifestyle pine beetle New West