Climate Change and Wildfires: The New Western Travesty

As my wife Chelsea and I drove through Arizona on our annual pilgrimage from California to Montana, orange smoke billowed along the darkened horizon, signals서울출장안마 of hearts shattered and landscapes scorched. Days earlier강남출장안마 nineteen hotshot firefighters died together as they battled the intense blazes near the mountain town of Yarnell. It was the most lethal출장안마 wildfire America had witnessed in 80 years.

The Yarnell flames were so erratic and intense the team became suddenly trapped, and despite each of the men deploying their individual화곡동출장안마 fire shelters, all fighting the flames that day perished.

The lone survivor was out 마포출장안마fetching a truck for his crew, only to return to the gruesome scene. It was the 용산출장안마single deadliest incident for firefighters since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Fires like the one서초동출장안마 that charred the small Yarnell community are only growing in size and ferocity in the West.역삼동출장안마 According to the National Interagency Fire Center, the number of wildfires every year in the U.S. has remained relatively steady, but their size has increased dramatically. In 1987, a little over 2.4 million acres burned across the논현동출장안마 country whereas 2012 saw over 9.3 million acres go up in flames.

That’s more than the size of Rhode Island영등포출장안마 and Maryland combined and it’s a trend many see as only increasing as more droughts plague Western states and climate change continues to rear its ugly head.잠실출장안마
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“Today, western forests are experiencing longer wildfire seasons and more acres burned compared to several decades ago,” says Todd Sanford, a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). “The greatest increase has occurred in mid-elevation Northern Rockies forests, which are having higher spring and summer temperatures and earlier snowmelt. These conditions are linked to climate change.”

Seven of the largest fires since 1960 have occurred over the last twelve years. As these fires get larger more homes, particularly those built in fire zones, are being lost. For example, this year’s Black Forest Fire in Colorado consumed over 500 homes, while last year’s Waldo Canyon Fire, only a few miles away, burned almost 350 houses. Even the U.S. Forest Service is beginning to hone in on the real culprit behind the intensified flames.