As a massive wildfire torches vast swaths of land across southern California, climate activists are pushing claims the devastating fires are linked to global warming.
Climate Signal sent an email Wednesday claiming the Thomas wildfire “is fueled by conditions consistent with the trends driven by climate change,” followed by links to information connecting wildfires to global warming on their website.
“Higher temperatures, drier conditions, increased fuel availability, and lengthening warm seasons—all linked to climate change—are increasing wildfire risk in California,” the email reads.
The email also included contact information for experts “who can further explain the connection between fires and climate change.” Climate Signal is a project of Climate Nexus, a non-profit organization under the fiscal sponsorship of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
Climate Signal promotes a growing fad in climate science called “attribution,” whereby scientists use models to guess how much more likely an extreme weather event was made by global warming.
“From 1979 to 2015, climate change was responsible for more than half of the dryness of western forests and the increased length of the fire season,” the email claims. “The fingerprint of climate change has been found in past wildfire activity in California.”
Already, news coverage has emerged, connecting wildfires to man-made warming. E&E News reported “Scientists See Climate Change in California’s Wildfires” and InsideClimate News published a piece on “4 Questions on the California Fires and Climate Change.”
While climate scientists expect global warming to play a bigger role in future wildfires, experts tend to see land use and management as a major driver behind the recent uptick in fires.
In fact, the most recent report of the U.S. government’s National Climate Assessment looked at the connections between global warming and western U.S. wildfires and found “low to medium confidence for a detectable human climate change contribution” in the region.
The report defines low confidence as being based on “inconclusive evidence,” and medium evidence as based on “Suggestive evidence” but with “a few sources, limited consistency, models incomplete, methods” and “competing schools of thought.”
The NCA report actually found a slight decrease in the number of large wildfires across Mediterranean California — which encompasses California’s coastal region from the south to about mid-state.
Late-year wildfires are nothing new for California. The Sacramento Bee noted that 12 of the “20 most devastating fires in California history, as measured by the number of buildings destroyed, have started on Oct. 1 or later.”
California is a warm and dry state, so winter and spring rains bring an abundance of plants, which dry out throughout the year when rainfall is scarce. When the Santa Ana winds come, they bring hot, fast-moving airflow that helps fires spread.
Add to that, massive increases in population, which means more buildings are being built in wildfire-prone areas — most fires are caused by humans. Those tend not to engage in prescribed burns and other thinning techniques necessary to keep fuel loads low.
That’s not to take away from the devastation of the fire currently raging in Ventura County. The Thomas Fire has been raging for days, destroying 150 structures and forcing thousands to flee.
California saw its deadliest fire on record in October when fires in the northern part of the state killed 42 people and damaged thousands of buildings. Thousands were forced to flee only to come back to smoldering homes.
Record rainfall in winter spurred plant growth across California. As the year wore on, plants dried up and created the perfect tinderbox for wildfires.
Read more at Daily Caller
Never let a crisis go to waste.
Rising temps., droughts, heat waves have all contributed to a world wide increase in forest fires.
Additional issues around Climate Changes and Warming temps. is species migrations…
The Simple Pine Beetle, confined for tens of thousands of years to FAR warmer southern latitudes
CAN NOW BE FOUND
NORTH OF FAIRBANKS ALASKA……..a global warming proof !
Canadian Forestry Officials bemoan the fact that the damnable beetle is felling MORE LodgePole Pine than all of the logging and all of the forest fires combined, across Canada & Alaska.
Evolution of the species allows them to adapt.
“Rising temps., droughts, heat waves have all contributed to a world wide increase in forest fires.”
The IPCC in its fifth assessment report said that extreme weather events are not increasing. So “Rising temps., droughts, heat waves” can not be a factor in forest fires.
If you carefully select you starting point, like the 1960’s, forest fires have increased in the United States. However, if you consider data from all the 1900’s, they have not. There were a lot of bad fires at the beginning of that centaury. One thing that has happened since 1960 is forest management policies have deteriorated.
As far as Simple Pine Beetle, how can an increase in temperature of one degree C since the start of the industrial revolution permit the beetle to migrate to a climate many, many degrees colder? Rakooi, rather than automatically believing the liberal BS you are reading, you should stop and think. Does this make sense?
You are absolutely correct David. That is why the climate con-artists always start their conversation from 1960, they don’t want you to look at anything before then (in terms of wildfires). There have been many many periods in the past with FAR greater wildfires, both in total acreage burned and number of fires. In the 1940’s there was a period where new fires were sparking up every 30 seconds, with more than 1200 wildfires active at one time. Practically half of the United States was on fire at one time in the 20’s.
The stupid climate con-artists (and their useful idiots like Rakooi) are really stupid to try to use wildfires as so-called “evidence of climate change” as if anything, our history of wildfires completely disproves their lie.
That is a load of hogwash. 1st, forest fires are NOT increasing world wide, that is a lie. We have periods in the past of far great forest fires. 2nd, heatwaves and droughts can only contribute to “assisting” the burning of forest fires once they have begun. Your so-called “climate change” doesn’t magically and spontaneously start a fire. Either lightning, volcanism or humans have to start it. In the United States, more than 90% of all wildfires are caused by humans, either accidentally or maliciously.
You BS about the Pine Beetle (actually it is the “bark” beetle), is pure BS .. the only reason why bark beetles have become a forestry problem is because the forests are no longer allowed to burn. It is this forestry policy that has directly caused the bark beetle problem. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with climate.
Your BS about the LodgePole pines, again, is pure BS! … Forestry policy has caused this problem. Climate has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Did the activists set the fires ?
Well, they certainly couldn’t have set themselves. Wildfires don’t just magically spontaneously combust. There have been no recent storms in that area, so doubtful lightning was the cause. Unless they are some new volcano’s in the area we are unaware of, that just leaves humans as the possible cause. Last time it was an illegal alien. I’m betting it is probably the same this time as well. Kommiefornistan seems to reap what they sow.
Climate Signal sound and is as stupid as the idiots suing to have Human Right designated it that river these idiots have been watching too many episodes of Captain Planet & the Planeteers while snorting funny flour up their noses
These greens are really stupid.. they see their CO2 God in almost everything.