California at this time is in a slow but rapid deterioration of its essential resources. The news has been overflowing the United States regarding the massive drought in California. Water is not the only thing that is decreasing in numbers, though. “California is facing the worst epidemic of tree mortality in its modern history,” Jerry Brown, the Senator of California said. Apparently, the massive drought has created a “Rube Goldberg” of consequences due to the lack of available water. Recently, many native bark beetles have caused a great decline in he population of these trees.
Jerry Brown’s administration finds that native bark beetles are able to exterminate these trees because of the drought, and it is believed that now most of these trees are not able to defend themselves. This year there is an estimate of almost 22 million trees dying due to the extraneous conditions California has been enduring.
This is what Bark Beetles do to trees.
The drought in California has caused great controversy already, with Jerry Brown implementing a 25 percent reduction of water waste. To many, this news can seem very distant and surreal; however, the repercussions of the immense decrease of water is becoming visible in the state of California. It is not known if the decrease of trees is in any way influencing the raging fires that have taken place.
One can say that the actions and zero concern regarding the Earth’s natural ecosystem is finally having the side affects that as a human race we believed we could outrun. The Rube Goldberg effect has finally started to be implemented, and now it is time to see if we are not too late to reverse some of the mistakes we have committed to our environment.
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