Article

2012-07-03 -Short Attention Span Theater-

WIldfires Caused by - What Else? - Climate Change

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by Bobby 2012-07-03 05:56|| || Front Page|| [11123 views ] Top

#1 Different article, more like the one I read Sunday: Logging is forbidden in some western areas to protect the endangered Mexican spotted owl. But the Forest Service must make a call wildfires or the owls, Allison said.

This one is all climate change:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/colorados-table-was-set-for-monster-fire/2012/07/01/gJQAVa6cGW_story_1.html

Posted by Bobby 2012-07-03 06:13|| 2012-07-03 06:13|| Front Page Top

#2 I'm willing to bet that the wildfires kill more spotted owls than logging does.

Posted by Rambler in Virginia 2012-07-03 08:04|| 2012-07-03 08:04|| Front Page Top

#3 the area's population grew and forest managers began suppressing these natural fires.
Says all you need to know.

Posted by Spot 2012-07-03 08:10|| 2012-07-03 08:10|| Front Page Top

#4 To reduce energy consumption/carbon footprint I recommend banning air conditioning in the District of Columbia and the adjacent state counties. We all have to make sacrifices, there's the start. Heh.

Posted by Procopius2k 2012-07-03 08:30|| 2012-07-03 08:30|| Front Page Top

#5 Weren't the experts surprised when they stopped trimming back the underbrush in Yosemite and allowing fires to burn naturally and then discovered that natural fires (although healthy for the forest in the long run) can be scary big and devastating to everything nearby.

Same is true out west, except there are less granite faces to contain the mess.

Posted by rjschwarz 2012-07-03 08:36|| 2012-07-03 08:36|| Front Page Top

#6 "experts"...

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2012-07-03 08:58|| 2012-07-03 08:58|| Front Page Top

#7 Sick of these governments playing with peoples lives like this. They disgust me. Refuse to control burn and when homes burn down and people get killed, some stupid A-hole says it is because of some fake climate scare.

Criminal.

Posted by newc 2012-07-03 09:03|| 2012-07-03 09:03|| Front Page Top

#8 I thought most were started by careless folk or firebugs... The recent Colorado Springs file notes the careless State University Mental Heath Emp who screwed up bad with his camping stove or the monster fire in AZ started by idiots having a party with rounds designed to start fires...

Posted by Water Modem 2012-07-03 09:26|| 2012-07-03 09:26|| Front Page Top

#9 Its called fuel load. Perhaps more small fires would have culled the pine beatles.

Posted by swksvolFF 2012-07-03 09:46|| 2012-07-03 09:46|| Front Page Top

#10 Fires may have been started by stupid human tricks, but they become these monster fires because of accumulation of underbrush and forest floor debris during abnormally long interludes between fires. The best documented example is the Yellowstone fires several decades ago. This gets made worse by heat and drought - which seem to come in cycles. It is claimed that the current phase is outside the normal variance but I'm not certain that's correct, nor, if it is, how far it is outside the norm.

Posted by Glenmore 2012-07-03 09:57|| 2012-07-03 09:57|| Front Page Top

#11 I fought fires back in the 90s. Even then the forest service admitted that their own fire prevention habits were too good and was detrimental to the forest. Instead of several small, low burning fires like in the past they had a few large firestorms that were fueled by the deadfall that wasn't cleared out by the smaller fires.

With the expanding wilderness/urban interface (yes, real term used for housing in the forest) it makes for real tough fights.

Global warming is still bullshit. The cause of the drought was the jet stream staying north and no snow or cold air dropped on the region. It simply is that time in the cycle and it happened 8 years ago and there were large fires then too. If "experts" took the time to look they would see drought happened like clockwork every 8-10 years.

Posted by DarthVader 2012-07-03 10:20|| 2012-07-03 10:20|| Front Page Top

#12 Glenmore, what IS the norm? How is it calculated?

Posted by Uneatch Ebbeng2748 2012-07-03 12:10|| 2012-07-03 12:10|| Front Page Top

#13 I don't know the norm - just that there is a lot of variation. One way of estimating drought is by study of tree rings - they've managed to tie together ring patterns from living trees back though old-ancient logs to get local estimates of climatic stress frequency and duration. I don't know if there are enough old trees/logs available to study from enough locations around the country and the world to reconstruct 'global' climate history.

Posted by Glenmore 2012-07-03 12:51|| 2012-07-03 12:51|| Front Page Top

#14 You only need to drive west on I-70 from Denver to see the miles and miles of brown pine trees killed by the pine beetles. None of that tinder was allowed to be cleared out, so it is prime fuel for a massive fire. No doubt that human intrusion into the forest has had an impact, but I would argue that ridiculous forestry rules are the prime culprit.

Posted by remoteman 2012-07-03 13:52|| 2012-07-03 13:52|| Front Page Top

23:26 junkiron
23:21 chris
23:17 chris
23:06 Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo)
22:57 bigjim-CA
21:42 junkiron
21:41 Harcourt Flatle5194
21:19 Grunter in Sydney
21:15 Frank G
21:14 trailing wife
21:07 Nimble Spemble
21:02 trailing wife
20:58 tu3031
20:47 Frank G
20:31 Redneck Jim
20:16 Matt
19:58 Glenmore
19:56 Glenmore
18:54 Bill Clinton
18:51 Secret Asian Man
18:45 trailing wife
18:28 Nimble Spemble
18:04 Bright Pebbles
18:03 Bright Pebbles