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Sorry, Gov. Brown, Global Warming Not To Blame For CA Fires
Posted on: August 6, 2018 at 16:24:00 CT
Spanky KU
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Fires have burnt a swath of destruction across Northern California, as tinder-dry brush and parched trees explode into flame during a hot summer. And inevitably, predictably, wrongly, Gov. Jerry Brown blames climate change.
As reported by PJ Media's Bridget Johnson, Brown calls the devastating conflagration now roaring through the northern part of the state "the new normal."
The fires have killed at least six people, including two firefighters, torched more than a thousand homes, and burnt close to 130,000 acres. The fires are horrible.
Cal Fire, the state fire agency, blamed "steep terrain, erratic winds, and previously unburned fuels" for fueling the fires.
Brown had a different culprit: global warming.
"We're fighting nature with the amount of material we're putting in the environment, and that material traps heat, and the heat fosters fires, and the fires keep burning," he said.
He called on dramatic, extremely costly steps to "shift the weather back to where it historically was," claiming current weather conditions hadn't been so hot "since civilization emerged 10,000 years ago."
Succinct, and very wrong. In fact, a look at global temperatures for the last 10,000 years shows that temperatures have been much warmer than they are today for much if not most of the time during that period. Indeed, many historians and anthropologists attribute the rise of civilization to global warming following the last Ice Age.
And, no, despite Brown's claims, we're not having more fires. A study in the journal Science determined that the global burnt area from fires, rather than growing, had declined by roughly 25% from 1999 to 2017.
Another paper, this one appearing in 2016 in the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, concluded: "Many consider wildfire an accelerating problem, with widely held perceptions both in the media and scientific papers of increasing fire occurrence, severity and resulting losses. However, important exceptions aside, the quantitative evidence available does not support these perceived trends."
But what about California? No question, the state is going through a hot spell and big fires. But a study released last year showed that, since 1970, the number of big fires — those of 300 acres or more — have steadily declined. The past year has seen some unusually hot months, no question, drying things out. But that's weather — not climate change.
That's not to say there aren't problems. There are. But it doesn't lie with California Gov. Brown's white whale, global warming, on which he is truly an Ahab-like fanatic.
He should instead point the finger of blame at two major reasons for destructive fires: One, in recent decades we've built homes and expanded towns in remote areas where previously there were few people or none.
But even more seriously is the federal government's foolish policies related to fire control.
"One of the biggest problems is the overcrowding of Western forests with dead trees, and the areas beween stand with dry, flammable grasses," noted a recent analysis in the Washington Examiner. "Part of the problem is that logging and grazing have been discontinued or discouraged in too many places."
Worse, the federal government's policy of wildfire suppression has, perhaps paradoxically, contributed to the problem. Before humans lived here in enormous numbers, the landscape had many small fires that suddenly erupted from lightning strikes and other causes, and then burnt themselves out.
But in recent decades, the policy has been to stop fires immediately. This leaves huge areas of accumulating dry brush that catches fire fast and burns hot, with the fire traveling quickly once lit. That's where we are today.
Fires Shouldn't Be Politicized
Don't get us wrong. There will always be forest fires. They're a natural part of the natural environment, though many are human-caused. Fortunately, thousands of firefighters have performed heroic service to save property and lives.
And, as we recently noted, even the media have shied away from the simplistic global warming-causes-forest fires stories.
But Brown does a disservice by attributing the huge and destructive fires such as we've seen in the past year to global warming, rather than to a combination of hot weather and mistaken government policies.
Sadly, once again, California's top official rides his hobby horse to a tragedy and, rather than telling people hard truths, uses the opportunity to score political points about global warming. The once-Golden State deserves better.
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/global-warming-california-fires/
As reported by PJ Media's Bridget Johnson, Brown calls the devastating conflagration now roaring through the northern part of the state "the new normal."
The fires have killed at least six people, including two firefighters, torched more than a thousand homes, and burnt close to 130,000 acres. The fires are horrible.
Cal Fire, the state fire agency, blamed "steep terrain, erratic winds, and previously unburned fuels" for fueling the fires.
Brown had a different culprit: global warming.
"We're fighting nature with the amount of material we're putting in the environment, and that material traps heat, and the heat fosters fires, and the fires keep burning," he said.
He called on dramatic, extremely costly steps to "shift the weather back to where it historically was," claiming current weather conditions hadn't been so hot "since civilization emerged 10,000 years ago."
Succinct, and very wrong. In fact, a look at global temperatures for the last 10,000 years shows that temperatures have been much warmer than they are today for much if not most of the time during that period. Indeed, many historians and anthropologists attribute the rise of civilization to global warming following the last Ice Age.
And, no, despite Brown's claims, we're not having more fires. A study in the journal Science determined that the global burnt area from fires, rather than growing, had declined by roughly 25% from 1999 to 2017.
Another paper, this one appearing in 2016 in the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, concluded: "Many consider wildfire an accelerating problem, with widely held perceptions both in the media and scientific papers of increasing fire occurrence, severity and resulting losses. However, important exceptions aside, the quantitative evidence available does not support these perceived trends."
But what about California? No question, the state is going through a hot spell and big fires. But a study released last year showed that, since 1970, the number of big fires — those of 300 acres or more — have steadily declined. The past year has seen some unusually hot months, no question, drying things out. But that's weather — not climate change.
That's not to say there aren't problems. There are. But it doesn't lie with California Gov. Brown's white whale, global warming, on which he is truly an Ahab-like fanatic.
He should instead point the finger of blame at two major reasons for destructive fires: One, in recent decades we've built homes and expanded towns in remote areas where previously there were few people or none.
But even more seriously is the federal government's foolish policies related to fire control.
"One of the biggest problems is the overcrowding of Western forests with dead trees, and the areas beween stand with dry, flammable grasses," noted a recent analysis in the Washington Examiner. "Part of the problem is that logging and grazing have been discontinued or discouraged in too many places."
Worse, the federal government's policy of wildfire suppression has, perhaps paradoxically, contributed to the problem. Before humans lived here in enormous numbers, the landscape had many small fires that suddenly erupted from lightning strikes and other causes, and then burnt themselves out.
But in recent decades, the policy has been to stop fires immediately. This leaves huge areas of accumulating dry brush that catches fire fast and burns hot, with the fire traveling quickly once lit. That's where we are today.
Fires Shouldn't Be Politicized
Don't get us wrong. There will always be forest fires. They're a natural part of the natural environment, though many are human-caused. Fortunately, thousands of firefighters have performed heroic service to save property and lives.
And, as we recently noted, even the media have shied away from the simplistic global warming-causes-forest fires stories.
But Brown does a disservice by attributing the huge and destructive fires such as we've seen in the past year to global warming, rather than to a combination of hot weather and mistaken government policies.
Sadly, once again, California's top official rides his hobby horse to a tragedy and, rather than telling people hard truths, uses the opportunity to score political points about global warming. The once-Golden State deserves better.
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/global-warming-california-fires/
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Sorry, Gov. Brown, Global Warming Not To Blame For CA Fires - Spanky KU - 8/6 16:24:00