Fire damage?

This is a strange sight: all the mountains around me covered in fluffy pine trees, and then this one covered in dead trees. Maybe it was a fire a while ago? The ground is all nice and green, but the trees are quite definitely dead. When we were at Rocky Mountain a few years ago, there were whole swaths of dead trees - terrible. The sun is shining in my eyes behind this mountain, so I can't see the trees too clearly, but am hoping it was "just" a fire, and not another tree blight.

 For people paying attention to the world around them, the decline in frogs, bats, and bees, in addition to the record increases in temperature, is a big sign of trouble. The growing tree blight problem in forests is another. I just wanted to shake the idiot "news" people who are paid to convince the gullible that this is not really happening. It's frustrating for those of us who deal in reality that there can't even be any concentrated action to make things better, because too many people want to believe in silly fairy tales instead of facts.

It's a tough reality that humans are busily destroying the environment, but believing in some fantasy world - unsupported by any reality - is not a strong long-term solution. (I'm fuzzy on the details, but apparently they have some "special magic friend" who won't let anything bad happen? But just them - nobody else, as I understand. And I confess that fantasy and mythology is not my area, so I'm doubtless getting some ideas mixed up.) 

I now step down from my angry, pointless soapbox, to enjoy the beautiful reality around me!