At least a third of the world's forests are in danger from global warming, especially the cool boreal forests of North America, Europe and Siberia, the World Wide Fund for Nature said on Friday. Warming weather could hurt trees' growth and reproduction more quickly than they could be replaced by other tree species, according to a report presented by the WWF ahead of the United Nations climate talks in Buenos Aires from Nov. 2-13.
Forest fires could break out more frequently. And attacks of pests, like an unprecedented invasion of spruce budworms now gnawing into 50 million acres (20 million hectares) of Alaskan woodland.