By Paul Homewood
Climate change has only played a minor role in recent Californian wildfires, according to new research:
Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science at the University of California, Berkeley, said 20% to 25% of the wildfire damage resulted from climate change, and “75% is the way we manage lands and develop our landscape.”
Jennifer Montgomery, director of the California Forest Management Task Force, said climate change “accelerated” wildfires by creating hotter and drier conditions throughout the state that intensified naturally occurring blazes.
“Climate change is an amplifier for natural systems and natural occurrences,” Montgomery said.
The comments by Montgomery and Stephens at an environmental conference in Washington undermine recent assertions by the head of California’s largest power utility that the wildfires were climate-driven.
From 2017 to 2019, California wildfires killed 103 people, burned nearly 4 million acres and caused millions of utility customers to lose power for weeks as electric companies shut off electricity to prevent downed power lines from igniting forests or grasslands.
Full story ($)
As I have been pointing out about the latest Australian fires, it is really pretty academic arguing about the exact role of climate change, given that we can do nothing about it anyway in the medium term.
It is the things we can do something about, such as forest management, that we should all be focussing on. This study proves that proper fire hazard management, forest management, power line maintenance and banning of urban developments in high risk areas amongst other things would have a substantial effect on the severity of fires.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
January 9, 2020 at 12:36PM
Iowa Climate Science Education 