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What can you tell me about wildfires. ...?

... in the context of global warming?

Whatever you call them; wildfires, brushfires, bushfires etc. Why do they occur and why, (assuming they are) are they expected to increase in a warming environment? Is there any evidence, so far, that they are increasing, either in number or intensity?

Looking at the news, in California, the Amazon and currently Australia, it certainly seems that way ...

3 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    1 year ago
    Favorite Answer

    You have to kind of laugh at the people that claim there is no connection between global warming and fires. Here's a thought experiment: suppose you're supposed to start a fire, and you're given a choice between warm, dry kindling and cool, wet kindling.  Which do you choose? I think virtually everyone would choose the warm, dry kindling. So why would people think that warming has no effect? If you take a place where fires are endemic, like Australia or California, and increase the temperatures you make the fuel warmer and drier. Australia just had its hottest day ever recorded--the average high temperature for the entire continent was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

    This is just the temperature effect, it it were to rain more, then it's possible the increased rain would compensate for the higher temperatures.  That may work in areas like the tropics.  However in the mid-latitude dry belts, that's not what we expect.  In California, for example, it is believed that global warming will make the droughts longer and more intense, but the rainy years in between will have even more rain.  This is a recipe for disaster.  You can get a large build-up of fuel in the rainy years that becomes tinder dry in the droughts. It also appears that the wet season may be getting shorter, with rains starting later and ending earlier, making the fire season longer.

    There are other contributory factors that have nothing to do with global warming.  With increased population, people are moving into areas that were once wildlands, and taking things like power lines in with them. A large fraction of California's recent fires were caused by the electric grid.

  • JimZ
    Lv 7
    1 year ago

    I would guess our CO2 allows plants to grow a little bit more than they would otherwise.  This means we have more food for people and animals survive in greater numbers but it also means that there is slightly more to burn.  In this case the positives certainly outweigh the negatives but alarmists can't do math like that.  They can only subtract negatives.  

    Fires in California have been about average even considering the very good amount of rain we had last year.  Remember Dirac providing us with daily Sierra snow counts a couple years ago... Well that stopped when it returned to wet and snow count is way above normal.  We are wet again and there is zero fire danger now in California.  The only danger is that you couldn't start a fire if you got lost in the forest.  

    Fires happen naturally.  When humans interfere with natural fires, the pave the way for disasters to happen.  When you get your information form the news (aks MSM) you are bound to get a very biased version of the truth and some of it are outright lies.  

  • mokrie
    Lv 7
    1 year ago

    Some California wildfires are set by people. One was started by an electric line that malfunctioned. Others start naturally when old dead wood is not cleared and can happen anywhere. Global warming has nothing to do with it.

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