Climate Change Behind Surge in California Wildfires
Climate Central
John Upton
October 10th, 2016
For the first time scientists can finally prove that human influence was the cause of the "new normal" regarding the now constant presence of wildfires during California's dry season. What has always existed, wildfires that is, now seems to have constant presence during the state's dry months. Many veteran firefighters have wondered why; asking themselves questions as to why on earth are they suddenly seeing a change in the magnitude of the fires they are now working to stop-efforts which are just causing issues in regards to their own professional capacity and bandwidth.
The study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that more than a century of fossil fuel during, deforestation, and commercial farming has moved California to what can be called an "explosive climate." Which the exact rate of blame is one that cannot be measured, the acknowledgement that human influence has played a role has been made and is now a stable argument. In this regard the study primarily focused on the the states dryness and the relationship in the increase of fuel aridity, fires days, and fire extent. Their analysis showed that temperature caused rising levels of greenhouse gases have had a drying effect, which in turn has had an effect on over 10 million acres. Their review of the land affected concluded that 44% of it was associated to global warming (in acres that's anywhere between 6 and 16 million acres).
The graph below demonstrates their findings:
So what do we do now? What level of work is going to be needed in order to address this and the other issues that are marking global shifts in the ecosystem? For one there's the reminder that for every degree of warming there is an even bigger impact on the warming that has already negatively affected the environment. It's also a reminder of the importance of ditching coal energy in favor of cleaner alternatives.
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Miguel,
ReplyDeleteThis was a great post. I enjoyed it because we sometimes think that problems are farther away than they truly are. In California, wildfires have become a normal thing just like earthquakes and lack of rain. That they are normal part of life and our climate but we are wrong, very very wrong. Wildfires are a sign of climate change and we are just sitting by and literally letting everything "crash and burn." We don't realize that the climate temperature is melting the ice caps and also destroying the trees that we need to help battle the production of CO2 that we keep on making. How long will continue to live like this? Probably until it is too late.