Climate Change Doubled the Size of Forest Fires In Western US, Says Study (time.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TIME: Man-made climate change has doubled the total area burned by forest fires in the Western U.S. in the past three decades, according to new research. Damage from forest fires has risen dramatically in recent decades, with the total acres burned in the U.S. rising from 2.9 million in 1985 to 10.1 million in 2015, according to National Interagency Fire Center data. Suppression costs paid by the federal government now top $2 billion. Now a new study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has found that a significant portion of the increase in land burned by forest fires can be attributed to man-made climate change. Other factors are also at play, including natural climate shifts and a change in how humans use land, but man-made climate change has had the biggest impact. That trend will likely continue as temperatures keep rising, researchers said. Climate change contributes to forest fires in a number of ways. Fires kill off trees and other plants that eventually dry and act as the fuel to feed massive wildfires. Global warming also increases the likelihood of the dry, warm weather in which wildfires can thrive. Average temperatures in the Western U.S. rose by 2.5 degree Fahrenheit since 1970, outpacing temperature rise elsewhere on the globe, according to the research.

Comments

Total BS

[Anonymous Coward]

The only man made problem here is the fact we've stopped forest fires in the first place. They are worse because of all the underbrush that didn't burn in the first place.

Climate change has nothing to do with it, except it got the author a new grant.

Re:Total BS

[Anonymous Coward]

What about the man made problem of climate hysteria?

Above average year of hurricanes? Climate change!

Below average year of hurricanes? Climate change!

8 year gap in major hurricanes hitting the US? We are just lucky.

Gap ends and Florida gets hit? Climate change!

Warm day? Climate change!

Cold day? Climate change!

I'm currently enjoying a beer while typing this, unfortunately it was the only one in the fridge... clearly the fault of climate change.

Re: Total BS

[Oligonicella]

Abrupt climate changes have occurred before civilization.

What about forest management practices

[mveloso]

There's also been a big change in forest management practices during that time. How were those factored in?

Re:What about forest management practices

[Strider-]

and the current forestry management practice is to put them out ASAP, you're right on part of that.

Actually, modern policies are to let it burn as much as possible, and only fight it where required. In our situation, they protected our facility (we run a retreat center in a deep valley) by doing controlled burns throughout our valley. This greatly reduced the fuel load, while protecting the larger/more established trees, and saving our site. In the end, the forest will be far more healthy because of this fire.

There were some other fires, further into the back country that summer as well, and for the most part they just kept them under observation, and allowed them to follow their natural course.

Shoddy science

[93 Escort Wagon]

Average temperatures in the Western U.S. rose by 2.5 degree Fahrenheit since 1970, outpacing temperature rise elsewhere on the globe, according to the research.

Western North America was cooler than normal for the period running from about 1949 to 1972, IIRC (I used to work in a lab that studied past climates using 13C from trees and 18O from ice cores). You could just as easily flip it and say 1970 was 2 or 3 degrees cooler than 1940.

I'll put this one on the article writer rather than the scientists, but - sloppy work like this just give the denialists more ammunition to keep ignoring actual valid data. Cooking the books in an attempt to provoke a stronger reaction ends up back-firing, more often than not.