Well, maybe not but they may contribute to carbon emissions by killing western pine forests with a fungus they carry, making them a source rather than a sink.
"Researchers estimated that from 2000 to 2020, a 374,000-square kilometre area of B.C. forest (an area larger than Labrador) would produce 270 megatonnes of carbon." about the same amount that Canada has pledged to cut by 2020.
Mark and I saw this type of damage on the Western side of RMNP last year. I took the picture above of a dead tree showing all the beetle burrows.
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