Despite all the concerns over global warming, quite a few enjoyed being able to walk about in a t-shirt through January this year. You're not the only creature to enjoy the unseasonable weather though:

Colorado's distinctive lodgepole pine trees are under attack from a beetle infestation described by scientists as a "perfect storm" which could destroy 90% of the western American state's pine forests.

The bark beetle outbreak was responsible for the death of 4.8m lodgepole pines in Colorado last year, up from 1m in 2005. The infestation has spread across 1,000 square miles of forest - nearly half the total in the state. Forty three per cent of the state's lodgepole pines have died as a result of the infestation. But it is not limited to Colorado: the beetles have munched their way through the western US and Canada, affecting 36,000 square miles of forest.

"I knew we would have an infestation," says Jan Burke, a silviculturist for Colorado's White River national forest, "but I never remotely imagined this. Nobody predicted this." She looks up at the mountains behind the ski resort of Vail, sweeping hillsides of pine pockmarked with the orange stain of dead trees and the delicate feathery grey of aspens. "I guess we're the lucky ones because in our lifetime we got to see these forests. Our children won't. For many that's a bitter pill to swallow."

... Scientists, environmentalists, ski resort managers and forestry officials agree that by the time the beetle has finished, it will have killed 80-90% of the mature lodgepoles in Colorado. Mature trees account for 90% of the lodgepoles. While beetle infestations are part of the natural order of the forest, the current infestation defies all expectations.

Dendroctonus Ponderosae

... Warmer weather - a recent study showed that over the last 50 years Colorado's average high temperature had risen by nearly half a degree Celsius and the average low temperature by nearly one degree - has accelerated the growth of the insects and enabled them to survive the winters. Normally Colorado would expect to experience a sustained period of cold weather during the winter months. But the week or more of temperatures lower than -10C has not materialised.

"The current outbreak is so far along that there's nothing much that can be done," says Bill Romme, professor of fire ecology at Colorado state university and lead author of a report into the infestation published in November. "If we get a period of bitter cold temperatures, that could cause the outbreak to collapse. But we're not getting the temperatures. Usually an insect outbreak will go on for one to three decades. We're about a decade into this one but at the rate they're moving they could run out of food before then." - Guardian

With this, the case-of-the-missing bees story and blue-green algae issues in Florida, just to name a few, nature seems to be handing down a serious lecture this year. Will we sulk, become obstinately rebellious, or heed the warning?