Thursday, May 19, 2016

Making an Example of Fort Mac

The Fort McMurray wildfires have garnered attention around the world. Indonesia may be ablaze from one end of the country to the other but all eyes are on Canada.

Some think that the Fort Mac fires should be seen as an invaluable lesson to others.

"The Alberta wildfires are an excellent example of what we're seeing more and more of: warming means snow melts earlier, soils and vegetation dries out earlier, and the fire season starts earlier. It's a train wreck," Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist from the University of Arizona, said.

The global fire season increased in length 19 percent between 1979 and 2013, resulting in a rash of large fires from the late 1990s to the start of the 21st century. However, the total amount of land lost globally to these blazes has decreased, at least in part due to improved firefighting techniques. However, in the United States, the amount of land consumed in these fires has risen dramatically. The 10-year average, which stood at 3 million acres 30 years ago, sits at 7 million acres today.

2 comments:

Steve said...

Hey its not like the worlds of fire................

Askingtherightquestions said...

Yes Mound, it remains important to keep repeating that this fire started in the first days of MAY in a boreal forest at 56 degrees north latitude! Tinder dry, explosive fire conditions in the first week of May, not July or August.

I observe that this is not really sinking in for Canadians. Hope people will get a map and look at this -gosh use google maps satellite view, its cool. Some may also be surprised at the size of the development from orbit. Just sayin'.