Global Warming - A Visual

Today I went up to Summit County to ride my bicycle. As always, I'm astonished and depressed at the damage the bark beetle is doing to the forest there. Just a rough visual, one in four trees are dead and I'm certain numerous others are infested. It seems there's no stopping the pest. The town of Dillon was taking draconian action, clearing their forest of infected trees yet it is most likely too little, too late as the beetle has finally spread east of the Continental Divide.

The bark beetle is a poster child for global warming. In the past there were bark beetles in our forests but the winter got cold enough to kill off most of the grubs. Now that's no longer the case. Last winter it was warm enough our snowpack began to melt in March. Combined with the close spacing of our trees due to excessive fire fighting, the beetle can march eastward almost as fast as the Japanese beetle is marching westward.

This comes amid rumors that Bush is about to convert to the anti-global-warming camp. The timing is suspicious as is the conversion - Bush is desperately trying to avoid two years of congressional subpoenas so is willing to grasp at any straws. I compare this to his Christian conversion. Bush is nominally a born-again Christian yet he lies, cheats, tortures and falsely imprisons. For five years he has fought any restrictions on greenhouse gas emission, citing the famous cigarette-maker pseudo-scientific obfuscational phrase, "It's not completely clear that...." For years Bush and the Republicans have used this phrase in lieu of coming up with any sound scientific alternative to global warming, indeed, that's the purpose of the phrase, to stall. It's an attempt to fillibuster science.

So don't get me wrong, I'm not implying that Bush can't have a change of heart. I just suspect very strongly that his "conversion" is politically motivated and about as sincere as his so-called devotion to Christianity.