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GAIA Host Collective
Good idea about the fire wall stopping the pine beetles. I was afraid the entire country would be destroyed.
“Without a video the people perish”-Is. 13:24
SpaceWaveRider,
We can but hope that it'll work, but I'm not too confident. 2 years ago there was hope, even confidence, that the Rockies would stop the beetle. Can't get a bigger fire wall than that. But it didn't pan out at all.
Meanwhile, the little critter has developed a taste for both far younger pine, as well as other species of trees, notably spruce.
From previous years, I seem to recall the opinion being that there was no chance a controlled burn could possibly separate the forest wide enough to keep the beetles from making it across (sorry, couldn't find a link). Considering the size of the area the pine beetle is currently infesting, I just can't see a successful firewall program. Practically and politically, I don't think they could burn enough of the woods to do it.
The only real chance they have, which is getting less likely with every passing year, is for a prolonged extreme cold in the winter to kill them off. The pine beetle isn't being reported as such, but it is very much a consequence of global warming. The beetle was controlled by those days a few degrees colder and lasting an extra period of time. This hasn't happened for a few years now. And as the north grows warmer, the beetle can edge further in that direction as well. The non-mountainous regions have little chance at all of getting a cold snap of the type required.
Unless I am mistaken, BC already tried firewall tactics. The beetles just went over the gap, even miles and miles wide, and continued their rampage.
Welcome to global warming.
"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Dr. Albert Bartlett
Into the Grey Zone