The Rise of the Bark Beetle

Not everyone is going to be unhappy if global warming makes California hotter and drier. Take the bark beetle, for example—when trees are stressed by drought, they’re more vulnerable to beetle attack. And right now, bark beetles are having a field day. They’ve eaten their way through 46 million of the 850 million acres of forested land from Canada to Mexico. And all those dead trees could be bad news for firefighters who are currently tackling three major wildfires in northern and central California.