From bad to worse

If you think it's bad that the mountain pine beetle will kill 80 percent of B.C.'s pine forests in the next five years, what do you make of the additional fact that, once dead, those trees will release into the atmosphere a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide?

That's five times the annual emissions from all cars, trucks, trains, and planes in Canada.

As author Werner Kurz says this morning in the Vancouver Sun, "This piece of real estate is no longer contributing to the uptake." That's because dead trees release their stored carbon as they rot and burn.

Can you think of an innovative way to combat this massive emission of carbon?

Video: How to kill a pine tree
Video: The pine beetle, up close
Video: The bug that ate B.C.