Beetle Convicted After Spruce Found Dead

“Beetle Convicted After Spruce Found Dead” is an investigative research paper on the greatest ever witnessed biologically caused loss of forest in German history, which seems to be caused by the overpopulated beetle. Though, it goes back to climate change, planting of spruce monocultures, war reparations, political decisions and eventually the human and its neglect and ignorance towards nature.

The forest is transformed into a factory, with the tree being the product – a product prone to diseases and natural events, such as the bark beetle infestation. The paper constructs the case of the spruce tree and its apparent enemy: the bark beetle. It sheds fresh insights into its complexity, with underscoring human’s mechanisation and commodification of nature that emphasise the tension between natural landscapes and industry.