Climate Change Is Upon Us, And We're Not Going To Like It

Scientists describe last year's ocean temperatures as "extraordinary." Climate change is a factor, they say. Fifty-five million years ago, atmospheric carbon dioxide increased at roughly the same rate humans pump it out today. Oceans warmed-- perhaps five degrees at the equator, nine degrees at the poles. Seas became acidic. Mass extinctions of marine creatures followed. In the dry Interior, a pine beetle infestation is expected to kill 80 per cent of the province's lodgepole forests by 2013. That's 25 to 30 per cent of B.C.'s commercial timber inventory. Cold winters limit beetle population growth -- but winters are increasingly mild. Pine beetles can exploit more northerly and higher elevation habitats. Foresters worry that the beetle will soon adapt to jack pine. If it invades this new ecological niche, the nightmare goes transcontinental. http://media.wildernesscommittee.org/news/2005/07/1420.php [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on July 17, 2005]

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