Global Warming Revealed in Alaska First
Because it’s so far north, Alaska is showing the effects of global warming long before any of the other 49 states. Forests that should be green are brown, due to the spruce bark beetle. Over the past 15 years, it’s killed more trees in Alaska than any other insect in North America’s recorded history. Ecologist Ed Berg blames the high beetle population on the weather. He says, “We had a really long run of warm summers.”
John Whitfield writes in nature.com that in Prince William Sound, boats have to navigate through the large number of icebergs calving off the Columbia Glacier. Alaska is already famous for its mosquitoes, so big they’re referred to as the state bird. Now they’ve spread farther than ever.
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