The Canadian Rockies loom up on both sides of the rickety road we’re bumping along. Mountains, with their high, majestic slopes lush with green forest, never fail to fill me with awe. Except this time, it’s because they’re not green. The whole mountainside is covered with the purple-gray skeletons of pine trees, branches limp, withered, dead. A fire, I assumed — until I noticed the same view I’d seen outside the car window in a visitor center’s photograph. Pine beetles were eating through forests in the region, the caption explained, leaving barren forest habitat and a serious problem. …The culprit of forest destruction in western Canada and even the United States lies in the mountain pine beetle. …The heart of the issue? Climate change. This essay is one of the top 10 winners of The Learning Network’s 4th annual STEM Writing Contest. [To access the full story a NY Times subscription may be required]