Along the Rocky Mountains, from Canada into Colorado, lodgepole trees are dying by the thousands. Entire forests are being attacked by beetles and the trees, in a weakened state by a decades long drought, are unable to defend themselves by natural methods. More dead trees produce more beetle larvae, and warmer, drier winters don't produce cold snaps sufficient to kill off the beetles. It takes two to three summers for the tree to die, after which the forest is simply biding time until a fire destroys historical structures, cabins and homes, and trees alike. This, unfortunately, is Your Fault.
Somehow, You thought that it would be a good idea to invest in ATVs and snowmobiles, and You taught your children how to start a two stroke engine before they could walk. By insisting that the only means to explore the world is via a powered, personal vehicle, You have created a misinterpretation of outdoor recreation: motor boat bait fishing rather than backwater fly fishing, unlicensed offroading rather than hiking and exploring, and Your original sin, parking Your motor home and associated motor scooters, generators, and trucks in a once empty meadow campground like so many beetle grubs in the forest. You have warmed, and consumed, Your planet.
This particular species of beetle (Mountain Pine Beetle) only attacks lodgepole pines, and their deaths make other trees in the forest nervous - like shopping in a marketplace in Sadr City. Here, then, is a worried message from a couple Aspen trees. Try and expand upon their message, and consider that there are other ways of igniting and burning a forest than by simply lighting a match.
Somehow, You thought that it would be a good idea to invest in ATVs and snowmobiles, and You taught your children how to start a two stroke engine before they could walk. By insisting that the only means to explore the world is via a powered, personal vehicle, You have created a misinterpretation of outdoor recreation: motor boat bait fishing rather than backwater fly fishing, unlicensed offroading rather than hiking and exploring, and Your original sin, parking Your motor home and associated motor scooters, generators, and trucks in a once empty meadow campground like so many beetle grubs in the forest. You have warmed, and consumed, Your planet.
This particular species of beetle (Mountain Pine Beetle) only attacks lodgepole pines, and their deaths make other trees in the forest nervous - like shopping in a marketplace in Sadr City. Here, then, is a worried message from a couple Aspen trees. Try and expand upon their message, and consider that there are other ways of igniting and burning a forest than by simply lighting a match.
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