Due to global warming, insects ravage the boreal forests of northern Finland

Bark beetles are frolicking in trees further and further north in Finland due to global warming, endangering boreal forests, as precious to the planet as the Amazon.

These small brown insects attack the common spruce, one of the most widespread tree species in Finland, slowly destroying entire forests.

Also, they devour everything that surrounds conifers and end up killing them by preventing water and soil nutrients from reaching the highest branches.

The beetles that threaten Finland’s forests

“These insects have wreaked havoc across central and eastern Europe, especially since 2018.Markus Melin, a scientist at the Finnish Institute of Natural Resources, told the AFP news agency.

The risk of the epidemic spreading is “much higher now” due to global warming, he argues. “We have to accept it and adapt. Things are changing very fast.”

The threat is usually much higher in southern Finland, but in the hot summer of 2021 these xylophages wreaked havoc “in the far north” in the Kainuu region.

“It’s a well-known phenomenon. Bark beetles are one of the species that benefits most from global warming to spread,” says Melin.

How Finnish beetles drive

These beetles choose trees already weakened by hot summers and lack of water.

The increasingly warmer climate also accelerates the life cycle of these beetles.. “Their mortality rate is going down and they reproduce much faster,” says Melin.

Though they choose the weakest trees at first, once they are very numerous, they attack healthy trees.

If the rangers do not react in time by removing the weakest trees, “suddenly the scolitines, being very numerous, can attack healthy trees”explains Melin, “accelerating the cycle of destruction.”

What is global warming

The increase in temperature that occurs on the earth’s crust is what is usually called “global warming”phenomenon that can trigger effects of collapses in sea currents, atmospheric movements and terrestrial dynamics in general, giving rise to final consequences that are difficult to quantify and predict.

Some of the “imbalances” that warming can cause are sea level rise, displacement and until the disappearance of animal and plant species and the feared thaw which, at the same time, puts the water reserves available to the earth’s population at risk.

Despite the precipitous drop in manufacturing activity that occurred during the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, which led to the forced confinement of large parts of the world’s population, has caused a drop in GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions.

The United Nations Climate Change Agency (UNFCC) revealed that in 2021, she registered “the largest year-on-year increase in methane concentrations since routine measurements began nearly 40 years ago.”

In line with the disheartening news, he warned that “the increase in carbon dioxide levels from 2020 to 2021 was also higher than the average annual growth rate of the last decade”.

In short, a historic record for those who have nothing to celebrate.