US wildfires are what global warming really looks like, scientists warn
Homes are destroyed by the Waldo Canyon fire in the Mountain Shadows area of Colorado Springs. Scientists say the fires offer a preview into the kind of disaters that climate change could bring. Photograph: Jerilee Bennett/AP
The Colorado fires are being driven by extreme temperatures, which are consistent with IPCC projections
guardian.co.uk, Friday 29 June 2012 11.36 BST
Scorching heat, high winds and bone-dry conditions are fueling catastrophic wildfires in the US west that offer a preview of the kind of disasters that human-caused climate change could bring, a trio of scientists said on Thursday.
"What we're seeing is a window into what global warming really looks like," said Princeton University's Michael Oppenheimer, a lead author for the UN's climate science panel. "It looks like heat, it looks like fires, it looks like this kind of environmental disaster … This provides vivid images of what we can expect to see more of in the future."
In Colorado, wildfires that have raged for weeks have killed four people, displaced thousands and destroyed hundreds of homes. Because winter snowpack was lighter than usual and melted sooner, fire season started earlier in the US west, with wildfires out of control in Colorado, Montana and Utah.
The high temperatures that are helping drive these fires are consistent with projections by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which said this kind of extreme heat, with little cooling overnight, is one kind of damaging impact of global warming.
(More here.)
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2 Comments:
Are you telling me there were not wildfires before global warming began? You apparently don't recall the worst western wildfire in 1910 - the Great Fire of 1910 - that burned nearly all of eastern Washington, all of northern Idaho and a large portion of western Montana that burned 3 million acres. This occurred long before anyone knew of the impending doom of global warming.
Spare us the dire predictions please.
However, if you ever get out to this area and ride the 'Route Of the Hiawatha Bike Trail' you will see some of the most incredible scenery on the planet where the Milwaukee Road had built its 'coast extension' through the rugged wilderness and mountain passes. the Milwaukee had just completed the 2500 mile extension in only three years in 1909 and the fire hit the area where the road passed through western Montana, Idaho and eastern Washington. www.ridethehiawatha.com
The rise of all those wildfires due to global warming is definitely a scary situation. Hopefully, there will be more snow this year.
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