Old Trees May Soon Meet Their Match

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/science/28pines.html?pagewanted=1&ref=science

Bristlecone pine trees have become the oldest trees on the planet.  They are found high up in the mountains of North America.  The oldest living bristlecone is known to be over 4,800 years old.  But unfortunatly these old trees may begin to die by two different factors.  The first is called white pine blister rust which came to North America from Asia.  The second is a pine bark beetle which the population of this beetle is increasing in size due to the warming in the climate.  It took a long time for the blister rust to reach the bristlecone trees and it will take a lot more time for the fungus to kill a large amount of the trees.  Blister rust is spread through the air so it is almost impossible for scientists to try and stop it.  But there are many ecologists trying to find trees that are resistant to the fungus.  As for the pine bark beetle, they only kill the larger trees but those are the trees that produce the seeds.  So since you have both of these factors affecting the trees at once there is a good possibilty that these trees will be put on the endangered list. 

China Could Overthrow One-Child Rule

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/09/09/china-could-overthrow-one-child-rule/

This article is mainly about China changing there one-child policy law.  They plan on changing the law so that adults can have two children if one of the parents are an only child.  The law is supposed to be enforced in 2011 and will eventually spread to the rest of the country by 2014.  I don't think that this is a good idea because the world and China is overpopulated as it is.  If they allow more people to be born in China it will cause a huge growth in the population.  There was a reason that they enforced this law in the first place and if they take it away they might just have to bring it back.  Also since the only people allowed to have two kids are adults that are only-childs.  Eventually all of the adults will have siblings so no more familys will be able to have two kids.  This new law might be to raise the population a lot now and then have it even out many years from now.  But overall i do not agree with this decision by China.