Climate change is killing cedars, starting with those in Lebanon.

It's one of nature's most beautiful spectacles. Green patches touching the clouds on otherwise almost completely bare plateaus. These are cedars , a tree species that has become the symbol of an entire country, Lebanon . An ancient species, these trees have survived invasions, fires, and deforestation, but today they are seriously at risk of becoming incapable of withstanding climate change . Ever-warmer temperatures, in fact, are threatening their survival, so much so that by the end of the century they risk disappearing from the country.

CEDARS AT RISK OF EXTINCTION

Some of the oldest trees in Lebanon's forests are over a thousand years old and their roots sink deep into the steep limestone rock. Cedars thrive in humid, cool climates, a climate that until a few decades ago was typical of the Lebanese highlands. This landscape was once covered with many thousands of square kilometers of forest. Today, however, only 17 square kilometers of cedar trees remain , in scattered groves.

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CEDAR CLIMATE CHANGE

As temperatures rise, the cedars' ecological comfort zone is gradually shifting toward the mountains at ever higher altitudes . This species requires cold winters to reproduce. Therefore, if the climate warms due to the continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions, cedars will only be able to thrive in the northern tip of the country , where the mountains are highest.

But even in the north, the situation isn't much better, again due to global warming. The densest cedar forest in Lebanon, the Tannourine Cedar Forest Nature Reserve , has lost more than 7% of its trees due to infestations of insects unknown before 1997. And the proliferation of these animals is a direct consequence of rising temperatures.

CEDAR OF LEBANON

The Lebanese cedar, scientifically known as Cedrus libani , grows primarily in the Middle Eastern country and Turkey. The trees germinate in late winter because they need cold, preferably snow. Cedar seedlings normally emerge around early May, but now they do so about a month earlier, risking death from the cold or insect attack . To demonstrate how much the climate has changed in this corner of the world, it's enough to know that until the last decade, at high altitudes in Lebanon, it rained or snowed 105 days a year and the snow didn't melt for three or four months. In recent winters, however, there have been an average of 40 days of rain and only one month of snow cover.

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