Holocaust of the Pines

I've spent the day with my family, much of it at elevations over 8,000 feet. We hiked around Monarch Lake, in Arapaho National Park.

Some doubt the evidence for global warming. The National Park Service does not. Increases in winter temperatures have meant a greater survival rate for bark beetles, and with it, a higher rate of kills of pine trees. Evidence of their activity was pretty clear as we drove up from Denver, in large reddish brown strips of dead trees, climbing up the mountains.

Five years ago, my wife and I vacationed in Alaska, and saw the exact same phenomenon, albeit at much lower altitudes, and in a much more developed form. In Colorado, the death of the pines will mean ascendance for the aspens, and there will be a more or less reasonable succession. In Alaska, the succession will be more difficult, because the time scales are smaller, and the distance scales larger.

For those who deny the reality of global warming, and what it means with respect to our stewardship of God's creation, I offer this:

Isaiah 45:19c I the LORD speak the truth, I declare what is right.