Brown: Debunking the blame on nation’s intense wildfires

Brown: Debunking the blame on nation’s intense wildfires

04 August 2017

USA – Editor: I cannot let this slide. The recent story regarding the blame for intense wildfires is an outrageous example of the conspiracy to promote man-caused global warming. This so called research and conclusions cite human caused climate change as the reason for bigger and more common occurrences of wildfires.

Setting aside the argument that man because global warming is arguably a hoax and their supporting facts are flawed.

The conclusions by these government funded researchers that human caused climate change is now a key driver of forest fire activity in the Western United States. Is grossly false. After 40 years of experience in the Fire Service and some knowledge of the subject allow me to help with the facts.

This story as reported is intermixed with some truth, yet laced with false assumptions and erroneous conclusions. Man is indeed the cause of more intense wildfires and more occurrences, but not as a result of an alleged warming planet caused by either man or nature. Studies conducted by the United States Forest Service provide the real science and logical insights. Increased fuel loads combined with mans increasing urban encroachment presents a leading cause fires have grown in intensity and frequency.

Increased building and development into wild land areas has not only increase fuel loads but increased opportunities for man caused ignitions.

Additionally, government and environmental regulations have restricted firefighters and foresters management efforts to create healthy forests and a healthy ecosystem, as reported by the USFS.

Efforts in removing dead fuels, constructing natural fire breaks, and managing control burns are examples of bureaucratic regulatory restrictions creating negative impacts upon fire prevention efforts. Regulations and lack of funding on the management of forests and wild lands, negatively impacted the natural health of trees and vegetation, contributing to the recent bark beetle infestations occurring across the West. The ensuing bug kill as it was known, increased the dead fuel loads contributing to more intense fires.

The greater intensity of fires inhibits the natural regrowth of our wild lands because of intensified burn rates. This is just one of many examples, wherein overly restrictive environment regulations have created unintentional consequences to managing healthy forests. Yet another example of where government gets it wrong.

Chief Spiesiss comments hidden at the end of the story only scratched the surface of problems fire and forest service professionals confront.

He is spot on in his assessments. Notice that Human cause climate change is nowhere on the radar of real professional fire and forest service managers. Researchers Abatzoglou and Williams should stay behind the locked doors and let the real professionals lead the way when it comes to protecting our communities and environment.

An international team of climate researchers from the US, South Korea and the UK has developed a new wildfire and drought prediction model for southwestern North America. Extending far beyond the current seasonal forecast, this study published in the journal Scientific Reports could benefit the economies with a variety of applications in agriculture, water management and forestry.

Over the past 15 years, California and neighboring regions have experienced heighteneddrought conditions and an increase inwildfire numbers with considerable impacts on human livelihoods, agriculture, and terrestrial ecosystems. This new research shows that in addition to a discernible contribution from natural forcings and human-induced global warming, the large-scale difference between Atlantic and Pacific ocean temperatures plays a fundamental role in causing droughts, and enhancing wildfire risks.

“Our results document that a combination of processes is at work. Through an ensemble modeling approach, we were able to show that without anthropogenic effects, the droughts in the southwestern United States would have been less severe,” says co-author Axel Timmermann, Director of the newly founded IBS Center for Climate Physics, within the Institute for Basics Science (IBS), and Distinguished Professor at Pusan National University in South Korea. “By prescribing the effects of man-made climate change and observed global ocean temperatures, our model can reproduce the observed shifts in weather patterns and wildfire occurrences.”

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-atlanticpacific-ocean-temperature-difference-fuels.html#jCpAn international team of climate researchers from the US, South Korea and the UK has developed a new wildfire and drought prediction model for southwestern North America. Extending far beyond the current seasonal forecast, this study published in the journal Scientific Reports could benefit the economies with a variety of applications in agriculture, water management and forestry.

4. August 2017/by GFMCadmin