That’s according to the Canadian Forest Service. Hat tip to the Washington Post, for an excellent story about the spread of the Mountain Pine Beetle, a tiny little critter that for eons has been controlled by cold winters…but no longer.
"It’s pretty gut-wrenching," said Allan Carroll, a research scientist at the Pacific Forestry Centre in Victoria, whose studies tracked a lock step between warmer winters and the spread of the beetle. "People say climate change is something for our kids to worry about. No. It’s now."
The Canadian Forest Service estimates that 80% of the pines of British Columbia will be dead within seven years, and fears that the beetle will spread eastward and southward.
Sorry to be so depressing! Believe me, I get no kick from this news. Charles Keeling, the Scripps scientist who more than any other individual discovered global warming, joked in his autobiography that "Perhaps convincing proof will be acknowledged to have arrived when a substantial number of US Congressman are discovered to have secretly purchased real estate in northern Canada."
Along those lines, my wife and I had vague hopes of summering in B.C. in our dotage. Now even that half-fantasy doesn’t look so good now.
Kit Stolz 
You have to have two houses: one on the American side within two days’ snowshoeing distance, and one the same distance on the Canadian side. In case Jebbie gets to be president, you see.
D
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God preserve us! Because the Bushes certainly won’t. I was arguing with my teenage daughter, who was suggesting that someday Chelsea Clinton ought to run for office. I said: “It’s a big country. Why can’t we have somebody new in office?” She said: “But I know who Chelsea is! It’s more fun!” Life in our media world today…
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These are opportunities to point out that the IndyFunded arguments that warming is Good! Good! Good! are erroneous.
File this one away and bring it out to use when you need to. if you can find estimates of monetary loss and the ripple effect thru the economy, even better [I suspect nothing like this shows up in Castles & Henderson-type CBAs].
Best,
D
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My mommy gave blood in Hamilton, ON, Canada last Wednesday and Thursday the Red Cross phoned her to let her know that she tested positive for the West Nile virus. At that time, she was not showing any symptoms, however, on the weekend she experienced flu-like symptoms. She had one mosquito bite on her leg.
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