A Canada Catastrophe

Written for readers aged six to eleven, this story follows two children, Kate and Tom, as they learn about a serious catastrophe unfolding in Canada. Their discovery traces back to climate change. Rising temperatures have allowed pine beetles to multiply until they overwhelm and kill the pine trees of Jasper National Park. Dead trees catch fire easily when wildfires break out. Soot from those fires settles on the ice of the Athabasca Glacier, where it causes the ice to warm and melt, which in turn feeds the damage. The authors present this cycle as a feedback loop that is harming both the park and the glacier, and they explain that the loop has now passed a tipping point.