Today, In 2023, Humanity is facing a catastrophic human-induced climate crisis which seriously threatens our very survival. 

Fundamentally, Humanity is faced with this climate crisis for a few principal reasons, which are important to understand in order to advocate the best solutions.

1. Pollution (including that of overpopulated species, which can be seen from the point of view of Earth as a form of toxic pollution) does not recognize national boundaries and borders while Earth is subdivided politically into self-regulating nation-states, which regulate, or fail to regulate, pollution and population for their own people and territories.

ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEANIC CURRENTS

Sun-bleached skeletons of long-dead whitebark pine trees stand at the top of a 7,200-foot-high ridge along the Reservation Divide on the Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana. With annual average temperatures in Montana rising, the whitebark pine that were not previously threatened are now facing an increase in blister rust infections, mountain pine beetle infestations and wildfire.

Stretching from British Columbia, Canada down to parts of California and east to Montana, live the whitebark pine. The tree grows in subalpine and timberline zones — elevations anywhere from 4,000 to almost 9,000 ft. It's an unforgiving space. The wind is harsh. Plants and animals confront sub-freezing temperatures, often until summertime.

The whitebark pine has historically thrived in these lands. But today, the tree species is in trouble. So much so that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the whitebark pine as a threatened species in December 2022. Increased fire intensity from climate change and colonial fire suppression practices, infestation by mountain pine beetles and a deadly fungus called blister rust — they're collectively killing this tree.