Listened to Marketplace last night on NPR. I almost never listen to the radio anymore, as it is difficult to hear an entire story with small children present, and I don’t think the part where I yell at the kids not to interrupt is all that healthy. So mostly I read.
But last night I happened to catch (most) of an article about how pine trees were dying in Montana due to global warming. I was stunned — are temperatures really getting so high that pine trees are perishing in the heat?? Maybe I should take this problem more seriously.
No no, it’s that pine beetles are eating them.
Ah. So, er, what do pine beetles have to do with global warming? Well, our reporters contend that the 1.something degree rise in global temperature over the past fifty years has suddenly made the pine beetles not get killed off by winter freezes, and hence the attack.
Now if I lived in Montana, I might buy this. But as it happens, I’m rather familiar with the *southern* pine beetle, which has been on a feeding frenzy for quite awhile now. (Note to Montana: Start chopping. Do not leave those dead trees standing there.) And the thing is, the southeastern US hasn’t had a Montana-style winter in quite a while. [Thousands of years? Millions? Some geologist please quick speak up.] So apparently *our* pine beetles are much slower on the uptake than Montana’s . . . Or else no one is blaming our beetles on global warming, and it’s just a coincidence that Montana gets climate-change beetles, while ours are extra hungry for some other reason.
My reaction? Linking the pine beetle infestation to global warming is lousy science. We may or may not be experiencing some kind of human-induced climate-warming. Or maybe human activity is causing wider swings in weather patterns than in the past (hence, warming and cooling both.) I’m doubtful, but it could be — I won’t dismiss the possibility out of hand. But claiming anything and everything just must be due to global warming is silly, and ruins the credibility both of the scientists who make these claims, and the journalists who report on them.
That said, as I mentioned, I live with small children, and there’s a chance I missed some pivotal moment in the report when the Marketplace journalists displayed their healthy skepticism. In which case, good for them.
I am highly skeptical as well, since the same pine beetle has spread to my own town and, well… it’s snowing outside. 😉
No, truly, the discussions have been numerous here, and only a few theories include global warming. When/if I see more about it, I’ll send it your way.
The greater tragedy of the pine beetle infestation is that so many trees are dying that a spark could take down large portions of national park lands.
LOL. Your pine beetles must not be paying attention either.
It is a scary problem. Pretty much here we just take down the trees. Which is a lot of logging, though probably not nearly as much as what would be needed out west.
We are helped by having a lot of working forests, so the industry is already in place to cull the trees. (Though I don’t think you can use the beetled trees for much of anything.)
Hello,
I don’t know if this was in the broadcast or not, but the southern pine beetle and the mountain beetle are not the same thing. The mountain beetle has been munching trees in the mountains for as long as anyone has cared to notice. The hard winter freezes keep them in check. Earlier springs, later winters, less rain & longer droughts have given them the advantage. Some areas are already experiencing an uptick in fires and then landslides. And the pesky things can survive the fire! They just burrow deeper and keep eating.
Linda,
Thanks for the reply. I realized they were two different beetles. (And southern pine beetles, likewise, have been munching more and less since as long as anyone has made notes of it.) But I would think that if you were a serious journalist reporting on a science topic, at the very least you would want a good explanation for why MBP resurgence is supposedly caused by global warming, when SPB is not. Does that make sense? It’s not so much that I object to the theory, as I object to tossing out the theory as a fact, with very little to substantiate it, and ignoring some pretty big questions that might undermine the theory. Does that make sense?
[And based on my very limited knowledge, it sounds like the MPB’s are a tremendous disaster–far worse than the devastation we’re seeing in the south. I’m not at all questioning that, not at all. I assume when they say ‘forest turned brown’, that’s a hard fact.]
People like you really annoy me, I have to be honest. You are so naive to the world that yo don’t even realize it’s us who’s killing the planet! How are the beetles supposed to multiply, if you don’t think global warming has anything to do with it? An alien invasion, perhaps? Get your facts straight before you post a message like this.
Sarah,
You may wish to re-read what I have written here, in order to review the arguments I was making. You may also wish to look at the link I posted to on-going Southern Pine Beetle research, for ideas as to what other causes, in addition to global warming, are being considered as possible culprits. As I have stated farther above in the blog, what data I have seen clearly shows a long-term warming trend in the climate over the past century. (I am in no way qualified to critique the source I cited, but intentionally chose one that is reputable, mainstream, and accessible to any reader who wishes to delve more deeply.) The point on which I am agnostic, at this writing, is the cause of that warming trend. I have no explanation for the climate changes experienced in previous centuries, either.
Have a good day and thank you for visiting the blog,
Jennifer.