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Wildfires

California’s Wildfire and Climate Change Warnings Are Still Too Conservative

November 14, 2018 Phil McKenna, Insideclimatenews.org , ,
As firefighters in California battle to contain the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, a climate scientist says the reality on the ground is surpassing what a government report projected just months ago in assessing the links between climate change and an increasing frequency and severity of wildfires in the state. After a dry summer and fall, powerful winds over the past week swept flames through the town of Paradise in Northern California, killing at least 48 people and destroying more than 7,500 homes, officials said Tuesday. Two more fires near Los Angeles chased more than 200,000 people from their homes as the flames quickly spread, adding to a string of fires that have caused billions of dollars in damage this year.

Scientists Say Logging Forests Won’t Reduce Wildfire Risk

September 22, 2018 By  Annette Mcgee Rasch, Mailtribune.com , ,
A group of environmental scientists have written a letter to Congress advising that efforts to control wildfires should focus on reducing fire hazards near communities, homes and roads and not on logging larger, fire-resistant trees deeper in the forest. More than 200 scientists with backgrounds in areas such as wildfire ecology and natural resource management recently sent the letter to Congress urging the removal of pro-logging amendments to the 2018 Farm Bill. “It’s hard for most policymakers to ignore science from so many experts when they explain why the logging provisions would harm forests and worsen wildfire conditions in the West while doing nothing to protect communities,” said Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist with Geos Institute, which focuses on climate change and other environmental issues.

Climate Change Costs Money, Wildfires And Storms Cost More

August 23, 2018 By Jill Richardson, Otherwords.org ,
Addressing climate change costs money. Wildfires gobbling up our country — and seas swallowing up our shores — costs more. Right now, much of the west is affected by wildfires. An unlucky minority will have to evacuate their homes, and some will lose their homes altogether — or even their lives. But for millions more across the west, “smoke season” is a real thing. Vast swaths of the west can be covered in smoke for extended periods, and inhaling the fine particles in the smoke is deleterious to one’s health. This year, fires resulted in the closing of Yosemite National Park and part of Glacier National Park. The Ferguson Fire in Yosemite is just one of many recent fires within the park, including the enormous Rim Fire in 2013, the fifth largest fire in California history. As a Californian, fires are a regular part of life.

Demand The Impossible

December 3, 2017 Anne Cummings Jacopetti, www.popularresistance.org , , ,
By Anne Cummings Jacopetti for Popular Resistance. I read Ayers’ book last summer and was so impressed that I bought three more copies, one for each of my sons. Now, raw from my trial by fire and touched to the core by the suffering and losses in my community, wondering how we can influence the recovery process towards a new vision, one that takes into consideration the looming threat of climate change in its various guises - flood, drought and fire - I turned again to this manifesto, reading it out loud and savoring with Roland its spirit of hopeful resilience in the face of daunting challenge. He calls on us to imagine a different world – a world in which our resources are shared to provide for the basic needs of all people, a world that recovers our humanity from the soul-destroying grip of greed and allows us all to find a role in building a better, more just and hopeful world for our children.

PG&E Power Lines Linked To Wine Country Fires

October 12, 2017 Paul Rogers, www.education.good.is ,
By Paul Rogers for The Mercury News - “The historic wind event that swept across PG&E service area late Sunday and early Monday packed hurricane-strength winds in excess of 75 mph in some cases,” said PG&E spokesman Matt Nauman. “These destructive winds, along with millions of trees weakened by years of drought and recent renewed vegetation growth from winter storms, all contributed to some trees, branches and debris impacting our electric lines across the North Bay,” he added. “In some cases, we have found instances of wires down, broken poles and impacted infrastructure. Where those have occurred, we have reported them to the CPUC and CalFire. Our thoughts are with all those individuals who were impacted by these devastating wildfires.” PG&E and other large utilities in California have a long history of being found responsible for major wildfires because of inadequate maintenance of their power lines. In April, the state Public Utilities Commission fined PG&E $8.3 million for failing to maintain a power line that sparked the Butte Fire in Amador County in September 2015. That fire burned for 22 days, killing two people, destroying 549 homes and charring 70,868 acres. CalFire announced last year that it will seek to force PG&E to pay $90 million in firefighting costs. More than 1,000 lawsuits and claims are still pending against the utility. “It was more than just a lack of maintenance. It was a complete disregard for their requirements of vegetation management in rural areas,” said Burlingame attorney Frank Pitre, who sued on behalf of the victims.

Early Estimate For Hurricanes, Wildfires At $300 Billion

October 1, 2017 Sabrina Shankman, www.insideclimatenews.org , , ,
By Sabrina Shankman for Inside Climate News. The devastation from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria—plus dozens of wildfires that raged across the West in early August—could result in the costliest string of weather events in U.S. history, according to a new report. Over the course of a few weeks, the hurricanes and wildfires left a trail of damage that could add up to nearly $300 billion, according to early estimates from the authors of "The Economic Case for Climate Action in the United States," a report released on Wednesday by the nonprofit Universal Ecological Fund. If they're right, the cost of the damage would be equivalent to nearly half the president's proposed 2018 budget for the Department of Defense.

Portugal’s Wildfires A Result Of Timber Industry

June 23, 2017 Campaign to Stop GE Trees, www.stopgetrees.org , , ,
By the Campaign to Stop Genetically-Engineered Trees. Wildfires in Portugal have been called “the worst such disaster in recent history.” Dozens of people burnt to death in their cars while trying to escape the inferno. But this horrific tragedy was human-made. One-quarter of Portugal’s forested landscape (more than 812,000 hectares or 2 million acres) has been replaced by non-native eucalyptus plantations. On top of that are expansive pine plantations. Oliver Munnion, Co-Director of Biofuelwatch, lives in Portugal’s wildfire zone. “We spent last night in a local school after some 30 villages were evacuated in our area. News reports say that a quarter of the municipality has burned. We’ve been lucky so far and still have our home, but many others have lost so much.

Alberta Wildfires Costliest Disaster In Canadian History

July 12, 2016 BobMagill, www.climatecentral.org , ,
By Bobby Magill for Climate Central - The Fort McMurray wildfire, driven by drought and climate change, was the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history, ringing up $3.58 billion in losses, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. The wildfire, which ignited May 1 in eastern Alberta and was brought under control on July 5, forced Canada’s largest-ever evacuation. It scorched more than 1.4 million acres and destroyed 2,400 homes and other buildings in and around Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada’s oil sands industry.

Fires In Canada And PUC Pipeline Dishonesty

May 24, 2016 Winona LaDuke, www.inforum.com , ,
By Winona LaDuke for Inforum - The firestorm in Alberta's Fort McMurray grew eight times as large in a couple of days—engulfing more than 600,000 acres. Not just one fire, it was series of fires, and as the fire enlarged, it created its own storm systems. The fire has not yet been put out, although it moved away from the city, ravaging the Wood Buffalo National Park and forests in the north.

Not Just Alberta: Fires Fuelled By Warming Climate Are Increasing

May 12, 2016 Staff, www.cbc.ca , ,
By Staff of CBC News - Alberta's unusually early and large fire is just the latest of many gargantuan fires on an Earth that's grown hotter with more extreme weather. Earlier this year, large wildfires hit spots on opposite ends of the world — Tasmania and Oklahoma-Kansas. Last year, Alaska and California pushed the U.S. to a record 10 million acres burned. Massive fires hit Siberia, Mongolia and China last year and Brazil's fire season has increased by a month over the past three decades.
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