Beetles and fire kill dozens of 'indestructible' giant sequoia trees

Deadly interaction between insects, drought and fire damage have forced California's park officials to trigger climate crisis plans intended for the 2050s

• 'This is not how sequoias die. It's supposed to stand for another 500 years'

Giant sequoia trees, the largest living organisms on the planet - some more than three millennia old - have started dying from beetle attacks linked to the climate emergency, the preliminary findings of a new study have revealed.

The deaths of the trees, some of which lived through the rise and fall of hundreds of empires, caliphates and kingdoms - not to mention the inauguration of every US president - have shocked researchers in their speed and novelty.