Why are the trees dying?

Trees are dying at an alarming rate, for different reasons in disparate parts of the planet from NZ, Australia, Americas, Europe, Africa - everywhere.

Here is a summary of recent reports of tree deaths and disease - many being unstoppable.   Trees in NZ which are hundreds if not thousands of years old are dying and may well be extinct within years.  

Understanding the reasons and treatments is proving much more challenging than many expected - particularly governments and populations which want simple quick remediation.  They seem less likely to be interested in the range of potential causes: colonisation, climate change, decades of ecological mismanagement, deadly pollutants, urbanisation and many more human induced reasons.  

Worse is the fact that many of these species extinctions can no longer be treated, prevented or mitigated.

We simply have gone past the many layers and stages of ecological imbalance that cannot be repaired.

• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/24/calls-for-emergency-action-plan-as-myrtle-rust-pushes-plants-to-extinction
• https://civileats.com/2019/01/23/floridas-citrus-trees-face-extinction-are-antibiotics-the-only-answer/
• https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/105302459/kauri-dieback-the-battle-against-the-biological-bulldozer
• https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46845461
• https://phys.org/news/2019-01-beech-trees-dying.html
• https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/31/africa/baobab-trees-are-dying-climate-change-intl/index.html
• https://theconversation.com/investigating-why-oak-trees-are-dying-is-helping-scientists-understand-how-infectious-diseases-work-108527
• https://www.tysonsreporter.com/2019/01/08/maple-trees-are-dying-in-vienna-and-no-one-knows-why/
• https://www.kcaw.org/2019/01/16/canary-tree-explores-the-human-relationship-to-a-dying-forest/
• https://www.labroots.com/trending/earth-and-the-environment/8256/trees-dying
• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/sep/19/tree-death-california-hawaii-sudden-oak

What do you know?  If you know of, or locate excellent articles on the state of our trees and what this means, then let us know.

​To be continued...