California wildfires, global warming
California Burns; Bush Fiddles; McCain Offers a Duet
12/07/08 08:14
During the Southern California wildfires in 2007, Dr. Joseph Romm, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and author of the blog Climate Progress, wrote for Huffpo:
"Global warming makes wildfires more likely and more destructive -- as many scientific studies have concluded. Why? Global warming leads to more intense droughts, hotter weather, earlier snowmelt (hence less humid late summers and early autumns), and more tree infestations (like the pine beetle). That means wildfires are a dangerous amplifying feedback, whereby global warming causes more wildfires, which release carbon dioxide, thereby accelerating global warming."
Today, California’s burning. Low rainfall, a heat wave, and early snowmelt are all contributing factors. Here in Northern California, a huge fire literally dances on the very edge of my town. Only a canyon keeps it at bay. Despite heroic efforts from firefighters, only luck keeps the wind from blowing it in our direction. Almost half the town has been declared either a mandatory or precautionary evacuation area.
Less than one month ago fire threatened the town from the opposite direction. With little warning we were told to leave immediately. Looking down the street, you saw the billows of orange smoke from the flames. We grabbed the animals, their food and threw few clothes into the car. Neighbors struggled to trailer panicked horses. Streets clogged with cars. All but one road out of town was closed due to fire. That road soon came to a complete standstill.
Again, quoting Joseph Romm’s Huffpo piece on last year’s San Diego fires:
"Can we say that the brutal San Diego wildfires were directly caused by global warming? Princeton's Michael Oppenheimer put it this way on NBC Nightly News Tuesday:
"'The weather we've seen this fall may or may not be due to the global warming trend, but it's certainly a clear picture of what the future is going to look like if we don't act quickly to cut emissions of the greenhouse gases.'"
"Thomas Swetnam, University of Arizona climate scientist, who coauthored a major study on the subject…said in 2006:
“We're showing warming and earlier springs tying in with large forest fire frequencies. Lots of people think climate change and the ecological responses are 50 to 100 years away. But it's not 50 to 100 years away--it's happening now in forest ecosystems through fire.”
It is happening now. When I wake, it’s not a fog outside; it’s smoke. For the past couple of days, ash drizzled down like light gray snow. On the air quality scale, 300 is considered “hazardous” to all persons. The air quality in my area is projected to hit 400 today. We wear filtration masks if we have to spend considerable time outdoors.
California’s firefighting apparatus is taxed beyond its limit; firefighters from all over the country are battling these blazes. Statewide, over 750,000 acres have burned, and the firefighting costs in Butte County alone have reached almost $40 million.
In 2007, devastating wildfires hit the San Diego area. Last month, Midwest floods cost unquantifiable human misery and billions of dollars. This month, wildfires ravage parts of the West—costs still mounting.
Discussing the Midwest floods as an example of extreme weather events, National Wildlife Federation climate scientist Dr. Amanda Staudt stated:
“The big picture is that global warming is making tragedies like these more frequent and more intense. Global warming is happening now. Our dependency on fossil fuels like oil and coal is causing the problem, and people and wildlife are witnessing the effects.”
And according to the July 11, 2008 Washington Post:
"The Bush administration has decided not to take any new steps to regulate greenhouse gas emissions before the president leaves office, despite pressure from the Supreme Court and broad accord among senior federal officials that new regulation is appropriate now.
"The Environmental Protection Agency plans to announce today that it will seek months of further public comment on the threat posed by global warming to human health and welfare -- a matter that federal climate experts and international scientists have repeatedly said should be urgently addressed."
Again demonstrating his utter contempt for this nation and its people, George Bush will do nothing. McCain makes prettier noises on global warming, but follows the conservative status quo of ‘drill more and deal with the consequences later.’ Democrats need to make more of the looming effects of global warming because right now, the costs of more of the same... they're all over the TV-- flooded fields, drowned hopes, fire-ravaged communities, and lives turned upside down.