Earth Island Institute

Shrugging off a Cataclysm

Five years ago, I took a backpacking trip to Alaska because, as I wryly put it then, I wanted to “see the place before it melted.” Like most tourists to the Last Frontier, I was blown away by the burly beauty of the state, the ease with which you can find yourself in the wild. But a pall shadowed my enjoyment. As a first-time visitor, I couldn’t help but notice that huge swaths of Alaskan forest were dead or dying. In many places, groves of brown trees broke the greenery. At times, I saw entire mountain slopes that had perished.

The problem, I learned, was the mountain pine beetle. The beetle…more

Contents

Features

Fear Factor ⇐ Read now!

Can We Learn to Live with Predators Among Us?

by Elizabeth Grossman

Features

Fever in the Forests ⇐ Read now!

Global climate change is making many trees sick – and in the process releasing more carbon into the atmosphere

by Daniel McGlynn

Features

Mission Impossible ⇐ Read now!

Ecologists agree that there is no way to win the War Against Wildfire. So why is the Forest Service spending more than ever on fire suppression?

by Jason Mark

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