Climate Change, Das Gift that Keeps on Giving – Tinder

In German, simply, beware of Gift-giving locals. “Das Gift,” in Germany and as used above, means “poison.” The toxicity that so many of us overlook is the devastation of climate change on our forests, before they burn away in the acceleration of wildfires around the world. A recent census in California can be multiplied in virtually every country with vast forests. From Eastern Europe to Australia to Brazil and the United States. Today’s blog will focus on the Western United States, particularly California. The rise in average temperatures everywhere not only deprives trees and other necessary vegetation of the water they need to survive, but weakened trees become vulnerable to migrating insects, and plant-driven diseases and predators. While people and even animals can migrate, trees cannot. They have to stand and take it… or die.

The West is uneasy about water and trees. California is the big water hog, and Arizona is the state with the second largest city in the West. And they are both parties to a water allocation accord that was first negotiated over a century ago. But dried out forests are happening in every Western state, and wildfires are our common signature, event-driven mega-disaster. Drought, better classified as desertification or aridification (permanent), is one of the big causes of such “events.”

But trees, those bastions of turning CO2 into oxygen, erosion prevention, shade, housing (for people and critters alike) and magnificent beauty (“I think that I shall never see….”) are dying… and humanity is killing them for more than their lumber value and paper creation. And while much of the world looks at California in terms of big cities, our magnificent forests used to be the envy of the world, from giant redwoods and sequoias to endless varieties of pine and deciduous forests. The numbers are saddening. Notwithstanding recent rains.

“Roughly 36.3 million dead trees were counted across California in 2022, a dramatic increase from previous years that experts are blaming on drought, insects and disease, according to a report by the U.S. Forest Service.

“The same survey for 2021 counted 9.5 million dead trees in the state. The effects of last year’s dramatic die-off are more severe and spread across a wider range, according to the report released Tuesday [7/7]… The aerial report paints a bleak picture of a state ravaged by drought, disease and insects that feed and nest in thirsty trees.

“From mid-July to early October, researchers surveyed nearly 40 million acres, including federal, state and private land. They found dead trees spread across 2.6 million acres… Douglas firs showed the biggest mortality rate increase. There were 3 million dead, an increase of 1,650%, counted across 190,000 acres, primarily in the central Sierra Nevada.

“There were 12 million dead white fir trees, an increase of 691%, across 1.5 million acres, and 15 million dead red firs, an increase of 242%, across 890,000 acres. The dead trees were grouped mainly around the Northern California city of Redding, including in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and surrounding areas.” Nathan Solis, writing for February 8th Los Angeles Times.

You’ll notice that the photograph above is not of a fire-decimated forest… or one where all the trees are gone. It is a picture of a not-as-slow-as-you-think dying forest, thirsty and desperate, with the silent chomping of billions of little insects, bark beetles, etc. and a whole host of plant infectious diseases. It ain’t good, and it’s getting worse. The non-predatory fauna and flora that depend on those trees are not having a good time either. Think of them as our perpetual litany of canaries in our own existential coal mine.

Indeed, as crowded forests access dwindling water supplies, the trees themselves become competitors for that precious life force. Dense forests look great, but look what happens when there is enough water for say, only 10,000 trees in a forest with 30,000. “The primary cause of mortality is drought. Roughly 80% of the state experienced severe drought conditions at the start of the year, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Thanks to a series of winter rain storms, the figure has dropped to 32%... But forest officials say that the increase in dead trees will continue to be a problem for years to come as rain levels in general remain low.

“Forest management will play a key role in how the state responds to tree mortality. The Forest Service’s 10-year plan to tackle the problem will include removing dead and dying trees in areas where they pose the most risk to surrounding communities… As residential development has moved closer to forests, wildfires fueled by dead and dying trees have destroyed more homes and structures.

“Over the last 11 years, there has been a nearly 250% increase in the number of homes and other structures that have burned in the Western U.S. as wildfires have become significantly more destructive, according to a study published this month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science-Nexus.” Indeed, Joyce Kilmer’s poem does not read: “I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a dead tree.” Are we next? Sooner than you might hope. Slowly.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I love the list of corporate interests that would face massive costs and profit declines, purportedly cutting jobs and taxes along the way, if indeed climate change were to be addressed as it really should!