This is a guest post by Andrew Gage, staff lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law.
According to the BC Government, the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic – a direct result of climate change – cost British Columbia billions in lost timber value alone – not counting environmental and other damages. This reality has influenced the public consciousness of British Columbians about the cost of climate change, and it doesn’t seem a stretch to suggest that public awareness of climate change’s impacts in BC was influenced by the pine beetle epidemic, and therefore that the pine beetle played an important role (Read more…)