This is not one of our regular videos that show restored historic footage of the way the world was nearly a century ago. In stead it is a report of the shocking experience we had while visiting the Harz national park in Germany, now two weeks ago. We wish to share the devastating effects of climate change on the spruce tree forests in the Harz that we witnessed from a front row seat.

The Harz comprises a circa 4000 km2 medium height mountainous area approximately in the middle of Germany. Its highest peak is the Brocken at an altitude of 1142 meters.
Historically the Harz has been a mining area for many centuries as well as in more recent years a source of timber. Since the second World War it has been covered with woodland, comprising for about 90% of planted sproose trees.

Tourism also forms an important source of income for the residents in the Harz. Its, until recent, spectacularly beautiful scenery and beautiful towns with half-timbered houses annually attracts many German and foreign visitors.

Until the German unification in 1990, the Harz was divided between East and West Germany. Traces of these fortified borders can still be found there.

In this video you will see great footage of the beautiful cities and sceneries in and around the Harz, in particular Goslar, Wernigerode, Quedlinburg and of course the Brocken. However, what truely shocked us was the devastation of nature because of climate change and global warming. More than 90% of the millions of spruce trees in the Harz have died over approximately the last 5 years.

Apparently the spruce trees are now dying at an alarming rate because of a bark beatle, the so-called "Borken Käfer", also called the "Buchdrucker" in German and "Letterzetter kever" in Dutch, i.e. a small bark beetle. The reason for these names is that these small, only about 5 mm long beatles, destroy the sap channels between the bark and the trunk of the spruce trees, causing them to die. Furthermore, because of drout, the trees don't produce enough resin that halt the beetles from eating their way into the bark.

The situation is very bad in the whole Harz, but most extreme around the Brocken mountain, North Germany´s highest mountain at 1142 meters.
Please watch these images and then ask yourself why there are still people who are questioning climate change and global warming.

One of the things that struck us was the sheer optimism with which these shocking sights are being approach. For example in the train there was an announcement which translated came down to: "You obviously have noticed the many dead trees. Currently the Harz is undergoing a phase of profound change. The forest may seem dead, but in fact it is very much alive. In only a few years time the Harz will be green again.
A new, more diverse forest will emerge from the dead trees which will serve as the food source for the growth of a large variety of mainly deciduous trees."

The optimism that we heard in the train is apparently shared on many German and other websites. We found it remarkable that statements were made like that the spruce trees have never been indigenous to the Harz but were planted by man and that now all these trees have entered their final life cycle phase at the same moment. Clearly that is not the case as the trees were planted, harvested and re-planted over many decades. What to our opinion has happened is that climate change has caused an instantanious blow to nature which has exponentially peaked over a very
short period of only about 5 years.

The sentiment that "Everything will be OK, as long as we let nature take its course, helped a little by man by planting a more diverse range of vegetation" raises eyebrows. First of all it is doubfull whether new spruce trees won't undergo the same fate as the current destroyed forest. Spruce trees grow very fast at a rate of 25cm a year. Deciduous trees grow much slower. Even a child can understand that it will take a generation (20 to 30 years) to regrow the forest.

In the mean time the still small new vegetation will have negligable impact on the ability to store CO2, the green house gas that is at the source of global warming.
One should realize that the Harz is not the only region in Europe where massive extinction of spruce trees is occurring. It is being reported from all over Europe. About 25% of Germany alone is covered by forests, many consisting of huge numbers of spruce trees.

Some may contest the statement that "The Harz is dying". However, unquestionably the Harz as we knew it is dead and will never return to how it was around the millennium. Whether it can and will be renewed and rejuvenated, only time will tell. These prospects don't look very good.

To read the full transcript of our commentry, please go to:
http://www.ricksfilmrestoration.com/H...

Please share these shocking images with others to make more people aware what is happening to our unique planet. Thanks for watching!

Music: Trevor Kowalski.