“The historic wildfires that have seized the
west are delivering a dire message: the climate crisis and decades of bad
environmental policies have unleashed deadly consequences.
“Half
a dozen climate scientists, fire ecologists, forest officials and Indigenous fire practitioners interviewed
by the Guardian this week described the recent fires in California, Oregon and
Washington as alarming but unsurprising. Stephen Pyne, a fire historian, saw
the fierce fires as ‘an ancient plague’ reawakened. Chris Field, a climate
scientist at Stanford University, said the sheer number and scale of the fires
overwhelmed him. ‘Even as someone whose job it is to study fire, it’s really
hard for me to keep up,’ he said. ‘There’s so much death and destruction – and
we know what we need to be doing to stop it, but we’re not doing it,’ said Don
Hankins, a pyrogeographer and Plains Miwok fire expert at California State
University.
“Underlying
the mega-fires are two human-caused catastrophes: the climate crisis and a
century of fire suppression. Here’s what you need to know to understand the enormity
of the challenges.
“An unprecedented year of fires”
“Wildfires burning
across the western states are staggering in size – in some cases expanding with
such explosive force that they have burned more acreage within a few weeks than
what might have previously burned all year. The flames this week belched up
enough smoke and soot to temporarily blot out the sun and turn skies orange
across the region.
“In
Oregon, fires have burned more than 900,000 acres and leveled entire
neighborhoods in what the state’s governor, Kate Brown, described as possibly ‘the
greatest loss of human life and property due to wildfire in our state’s history.’
Half a million people – about 10% of the state’s population – were under
evacuation orders by Thursday afternoon. Parts of the state that rarely see
fires burned with unusual ferocity; the regions south of Portland threatened by
the Beechie Creek and Lionshead fires haven’t seen such an intensity of fire in
300 or 400 years, said Meg Krawchuk, a pyrogeographer at Oregon State
University.
“California has
seen six of the 20 largest wildfires in its history this year, which have
burned a record 3.1m acres. The fires are also hitting before the traditional
start of fire season in the fall. ‘We’re seeing an unprecedented year of fires,’
said Frank Lake, a US Forest Service research ecologist.
“Primed for catastrophe: The fires this week are raging in 13 western states, according to the National Fire Information Center, and the factors driving them are numerous and varied. But there’s no doubt that ‘human-caused climate change is a major factor driving these fires.’ said Patrick Gonzalez, a fire ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley.
“Some
of the fires around coastal California were sparked by highly unusual lightning
storms that followed a searing heatwave. Others were ignited by humans – but
stoked by powerful, dry winds.
“Drought
in many cases played a role. Severe drought contributed to the death over the
past decade of about 163m trees in California – and the dead vegetation has
probably helped fuel and feed some of the fastest-moving fires. Continuing drought
in Oregon dried soils, allowing flames to zip across the landscape unfettered
by moisture.
“‘Each
fire has a particular ignition, a particular context,’ Field said. ‘But when
you step back, a more consistent pattern emerges.’ The climate crisis has increased
the risks of large, extreme fires, he said, heating and drying the landscape so
it’s primed for catastrophe.
“A
2019 study found that from 1972 to 2018,
California saw a fivefold increase in the area burned in any given year – and
an eightfold increase in the area burned by summer fires. Another study estimates
that without human-caused climate change, the area that burned between 1984 and
2015 would have been half of what it was.
“And
a research paper published last month
suggests that the number of autumn days with ‘extreme fire weather’ – when the
risk of wildfires is particularly high – has doubled over the past two decades.
‘Our climate model analyses suggest that continued climate change will further
amplify the number of days with extreme fire weather by the end of this
century,’ the researchers write…” (The Guardian).
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