Earth Equity News

In British Columbia, a New Positive Feedback Warming Loop: the Mountain Pine Beatle. By Peter N. Spotts, CSM, April 24, 2008. "An infestation of mountain pine beetles is turning more than 144,000 square miles of woods in British Columbia from a slight carbon absorber -- or sink -- to a net CO2 emitter. Canadian scientists unveiled projections Wednesday that between 2000 and 2020, the forest will have lost 270 million tons of carbon into the atmosphere. The process has the potential to become a vicious cycle: As the climate warms, it favors more severe outbreaks, and if severe outbreaks increase, that leaves fewer trees to absorb carbon and more emissions as dead trees decompose. Researchers say British Columbia's problem highlights a growing threat that North American forests, too, face from climate change."