Methuselah Faces New Climate Threats at 4,800 Years as Drought, Heat and Pests Hit Bristlecones
Updated
Updated · The Brighter Side of News · Jul 6
Methuselah Faces New Climate Threats at 4,800 Years as Drought, Heat and Pests Hit Bristlecones
3 articles · Updated · The Brighter Side of News · Jul 6
Summary
California’s 4,800-year-old Methuselah, widely regarded as the oldest known non-clonal tree, is now threatened by rising heat, severe drought, bark beetles and wildfire in the White Mountains.
Recent heat and the worst drought in 1,200 years are already killing nearby pines, raising fears that even bristlecones’ dense wood, slow growth and extreme hardiness may no longer be enough.
Scientists have long treated Methuselah as unusually vulnerable despite its age—the U.S. Forest Service still withholds its exact location, and the 1964 felling of the older bristlecone Prometheus remains a cautionary example.
The threat gives Methuselah broader significance as a climate-era symbol: a tree that survived nearly five millennia may now be tested most by fast-changing modern conditions.