Western Wildfires: Blazes Fueled By Climate Change Engulf Vast Region In Crisis

Washington Post - Andrew Freedman | Karly Domb Sadof

Here are just 11 of the wildfires burning in Washington state, Oregon and California

Sept. 10 | Mountain Home Village, Calif. (Kyle Grillot for The Washington Post)

California, Oregon and Washington state are in the midst of an unprecedented wildfire siege, which has forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes, killed at least 17 and damaged or destroyed thousands of residences and businesses.

In California alone, 28 major wildfires were burning Friday, including the state’s largest on record. Five of the state’s top 20 largest wildfires are actively burning. Since the beginning of the year, wildfires have burned over 3.2 million acres in California

In Washington, fires spread rapidly amid howling, dry winds. More than 600,000 acres — the largest burned area in state history since 2015′s historic season — have burned in active fires this week alone, Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said Friday.

And in Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown (D) earlier this week described the state’s wildfires as a “once-in-a-generation event,” putting more than 500,000 residents — more than 10 percent of the state’s population — under an evacuation warning or order. This week’s fires have left in excess of 1 million acres charred in the state.



Wildfire experts say they have never seen so many large and rapidly growing wildfires in so many places simultaneously. Many were so severe they manufactured their own weather, including lightning arcing out of the ash-laden sky.

Human-caused climate change is driving fire risks in the West to new heights, enabling more fires to behave in extreme, unpredictable ways.

Warming temperatures made these fires worse by drying out vegetation during a record-shattering heat wave, the second since mid-August.

These blazes exploded in size during an outbreak of strong winds that simultaneously hit the Cascades, Sierras and coastal mountain ranges; the gusts pushing the flames down canyons, through campgrounds, past highways and into neighborhoods.

Another factor — decades of fire suppression policies, including a lack of prescribed burning — aggravated conditions further by leaving more material for the fires to burn.

A look at 11 different blazes from these three states shows some of the common features of these blazes — their astonishing speed and terrifying capriciousness.

Cold Springs and Pearl Hill fires, Washington state The Cold Springs Fire started Sunday near Omak, Wash. The Pearl Hill Fire started shortly after, on Monday, near Bridgeport, Wash. Both fires spread quickly due to strong winds and low humidity. As of Friday, the fires had burned more than 196,700 acres.

Sept. 7 | Azwell, Wash. (Tyler Tjomsland/AP)

Beachie Creek Fire, Oregon Before a severe windstorm on Monday, the Beachie Creek Fire was just 469 acres. That night, it grew to more than 131,000 acres, driven by dry fuels and high winds, prompting evacuations. The fire affected communities in Santiam Canyon, including Lyons and Mehama, killing at least two people.

(Virgil McCurdy via Storyful)

Sept. 8 | Lyons, Ore. (Mark Ylen/AP)

Holiday Farm Fire, Oregon The Holiday Farm Fire is burning in the Willamette National Forest. As of Friday, the fire was zero percent contained and had burned over 156,708 acres. More than 400 emergency personal have been assigned to the fire, which started Monday.

Sept. 10 | Nimrod, Ore. (Andy Nelson/AP)

Sept. 8, 2020 | Blue River, Ore. (Andy Nelson/AP)

Almeda Fire, Oregon Strong, dry winds blowing down mountainsides from land to sea pushed the Almeda Fire toward heavily populated areas on Tuesday, with parts of the city of Medford placed under evacuation advisories. The fire caused widespread damage in Phoenix and Talent, just southeast of Medford.

(Bow Shaban DeBey via Storyful)

Sept. 10 | Phoenix, Ore. (Mason Trinca for The Washington Post)

Sept. 10 | Phoenix, Ore. (John Locher/AP)

North Complex Fire, California A Northern California wildfire that has burned through more than 250,000 acres of land has now killed at least 10 people, nine alone in the town of Berry Creek, part of a brutal fire season that includes five of the 20 largest wildfires in the state’s history. Butte County sheriff’s officials confirmed seven additional deaths from the North Complex Fire on Thursday and said 16 people remain missing in the state’s deadliest blaze this year. A total of 19 people have died in California wildfires in 2020, fire officials said Friday.

Sept. 9 | Oroville, Calif. (Noah Berger/AP)

LEFT: Sept. 9 | Butte County, Calif. (Noah Berger/AP).
RIGHT: Sept. 9 | Butte County, Calif. (Noah Berger/AP).

LNU Lightning Complex, California The LNU Lightning Complex is one of the fires that was ignited in August, following a mid-month heat wave and rare surge in lightning strikes from thunderstorms that delivered plenty of sparks but little rain. The fire is now on the state’s top 20 list of largest-ever fires.

Aug. 20, 2020 | Sonoma County, Calif. (Stuart W. Palley for The Washington Post)

Creek Fire, California The Creek Fire began on Sept. 4 in the Sierra National Forest. It grew by more than 100,000 acres in 24 hours during Labor Day weekend, trapping campers, hikers and vacationers. The California National Guard conducted daring helicopter flights to evacuate more than 100 people from the area as the fire grew out of control.

(Ian M. Wright via Storyful)

Sept. 7 | Fresno County, Calif. (Noah Berger/AP)

Sept. 7 | Madera County, Calif. (Noah Berger/AP)

Dolan Fire, California The Dolan Fire, burning in Los Padres National Forest in California, has grown to more than 111,000 acres this week after strong winds caused it to triple in size. The fire originally began on Aug. 18, though the cause is still unknown. Three firefighters were injured in the blaze on Tuesday; two have been released from the hospital, and the third is in stable condition. Parts of Route 1, which runs along the coast, were closed due to the fire and the falling rocks and debris it caused. The Dolan Fire was 26 percent contained as of Friday morning.

Aug. 22 | Big Sur, Calif. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)

Bobcat Fire, California The Bobcat Fire continues to burn deeper into the Angeles National Forest, causing smoke to fill the air over the San Gabriel Valley and surrounding areas around Los Angeles. The fire started Sunday and has burned more than 26,000 acres and is only 6 percent contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The Bobcat Fire crossed into Monrovia, Calif., city limits on Friday. Fire officials say they have built a defensive line between the fire and the city and have warned residents that evacuation orders are possible.

(Mt. Wilson Observatory)

LEFT: Sept 9 | Monrovia, Calif. (Kyle Grillot for The Washington Post).
RIGHT: Sept 10 | Monrovia, Calif. (David Mcnew/Getty Images).

El Dorado Fire, California The El Dorado Fire started on Sept. 5 when a pyrotechnic device from a gender-reveal party ignited dry wild grass at El Dorado Ranch Park, about 80 miles east of Los Angeles. As of Friday morning, the fire had burned more than 13,000 acres and destroyed four homes. It is 31 percent contained, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

(SB County Fire via Storyful)

Sept. 10 | San Bernardino National Forest. (Kyle Grillot for The Washington Post)

LEFT: Sept. 10 | San Bernardino National Forest. (Kyle Grillot for The Washington Post) .
RIGHT: Sept. 10 | San Bernardino National Forest. (Kyle Grillot for The Washington Post) .

Valley Fire, California The Valley Fire in rural eastern San Diego County destroyed dozens of structures and forced evacuations, though those orders were lifted Friday afternoon. The fire has grown to more than 17,000 acres, according to CalFire, and was 39 percent contained as of Friday morning.

Sept 9, 2020 | Concord, Calif. (Brittany Hosea-Small/AFP/Getty Images)

Sept 6 | Jamul, Calif. (Sandy Huffaker/AFP/Getty Images)

Links

• As wildfires rage, US voters still divided on climate
• Wildfires scorch millions of acres in Western U.S. as Oregon braces for 'mass fatality event'
• Here's What the Massive Amount of Smoke Created by West Coast Wildfires Looks Like From Space
• A government agency just warned this week's West Coast wildfires could spark a financial crisis. A top economist thinks the effects could linger for years.
• Death Toll Climbs In West Coast Wildfires Increasingly Blamed On Climate Change
• Australia Burned Under a Haze of Misinformation Earlier This Year. The U.S. Is Next.
• Wildfires are striking closer and closer to cities. We know how this will end
• Through the fire and smoke, a sobering view of California’s climate catastrophe
• Stark New Imagery Reveals The Scary Extent Of West Coast Wildfires

The Future Has Arrived. These Explosive Fires Are Our Climate Change Wakeup Call

The Guardian - Peter Gleick

Scientists have been warning of the growing threat of climate change, and now those projections are a reality

Californians woke up to red, sunless skies and layers of ash coating everything as a result of wildfires across the state. Photograph: Frederic Larson/AP

Author Peter Gleick is a hydroclimatologist, member of the US National Academy of Sciences, MacArthur Fellow, and choking, gasping Californian.

Like millions of people in the western United States this week, I woke up to deep red, sunless skies, layers of ash coating the streets, gardens, and cars, and the smell of burning forests, lives, homes, and dreams. Not to be too hyperbolic, but on top of the political chaos, the economic collapse, and the worst pandemic in modern times, it seemed more than a little apocalyptic.

Too much of the western United States is on fire, and many areas not suffering directly from fire are enveloped in choking, acrid smoke.

While fires in the west are not unusual or unexpected, these fires are different: they’re earlier, bigger, and hotter than usual. They are expanding explosively, overwhelming towns and firefighting resources. And there’s no getting away from them. As of Thursday evening, five of the ten largest wildfires in California’s history are burning. Seven of the 10 largest fires have occurred in the last four years. This isn’t normal.

What’s different now? Human-caused climate change.

We’re reaping the consequences of more than a century of using the thin, delicate layer of atmosphere that surrounds the planet as a dumping ground for the major waste product of burning fossil fuels – carbon dioxide. For more than half a century, scientists have been warning of the growing threat of climate change. My own work on climate and water 35 years ago found that rising temperatures would alter California’s snowpack, water availability, and soil moisture in ways we’re now seeing in our mountains and rivers. In the early 1990s, scientists such as Margaret Torn, Jeremy Fried, Kevin Ryan, Colin Price, and others were evaluating the risks of increases in western wildfire areas and intensity under scenarios of climate change. The National Climate Assessments required by federal law have regularly warned that worsening fires were a likely future consequence of accelerating climate change.

Projections have turned to reality. The future has arrived. What we’re seeing now, with massive wildfires, worsening storms, unprecedented heat, and record droughts and floods is just the beginning of the climate changes to come. On top of rising oceans, the accelerating destruction of the Arctic ice cap, expanding water crises, and new health disasters, these climate impacts are something no human society has ever experienced and for which we remain woefully unprepared.

I’m not arguing any individual disaster has been caused by climate change, though the science is strengthening on that as well. I’m saying we are now seeing the unambiguous influence of climate change on these disasters. What used to be considered acts of God are now also acts of humans. Hurricanes such as Harvey in 2017 are stronger and they’re delivering more devastating floods. Heat waves are happening earlier and they’re longer and hotter than they used to be. California just experienced its hottest August on record including what may have been the hottest temperature ever recorded, in Death Valley. The wildfires, as we’ve seen, are turning into fierce, fearsome, monsters.

What we’re seeing now is just the beginning of the climate changes to come

The influence of climate change on wildfires is easy to see. Global warming is diminishing our mountain snowpack, leading to hotter and drier summers. Eighty percent of California, 95% of Oregon, and all of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico are currently in drought. Severe droughts over the past decade have killed hundreds of millions of trees in our forests, adding to the fuels available to burn. Higher temperatures further dry out forest and rangeland soils. Unusual lightning storms are igniting multiple fires at a time, overwhelming our ability to squelch them early.

We’re not alone. The wildfire signal of climate change is being seen around the world, in southern Europe, Canada, Australia, South America, and Africa, and other climate-change impacts are accelerating too, in the form of storms, melting glaciers, rising seas, and more.

More and more scientists are speaking out about the connections between these disasters and climate change. The media is slowly getting better at reporting these links, though too many stories still fail to do so.

It is also time for our politicians to lead or get out of the way. For decades both major political parties in the US ignored the climate problem, putting off decisions for the next generation and permitting the rich and powerful fossil fuel interests to hide, misrepresent, and deny the science and the threat. And the claim that the cost of tackling climate change is too high is complete crap. The reality is the cost of failing to address the problem is so much higher.

We have no more time to twiddle our collective thumbs. The bad news is that the long delay in tackling climate change means that some severe impacts, like the fires we’re seeing now, are no longer avoidable and we must begin the process of adapting to them. We must, at the same time, accelerate the complete elimination of fossil-fuel combustion to slow the rate of future climate changes and prevent even worse, potentially catastrophic impacts from occurring.

The good news is that we know how to do both things. Adaptation options include changing zoning laws, forest management, construction practices and building materials, insurance policies, and public health strategies. And the amazingly fast growth in renewable energy options and the dramatic plunge in their costs means that it makes economic as well as well as environmental sense to get rid of fossil fuels.

The links between human-caused climate change and extreme events are real, dangerous, and worsening. But now that we’re beginning to accept and acknowledge those links, now that the public is increasingly aware of the problem, now that at least one political party has embraced the need to act, we have a chance to break these links. There is no time to waste.

Links

• Trauma, fear, homelessness: life after California's deadliest fire shows the future of climate crisis
• Ban Ki-moon: I’m bewildered that Trump would imperil America by abandoning the Paris agreement
• What has four years of Donald Trump meant for the climate crisis?
• How SUVs conquered the world – at the expense of its climate
• How the global climate fight could be lost if Trump is re-elected
• The climate crisis has already arrived. Just look to California’s abnormal wildfires
• West Coast Wildfires
• 500,000 evacuate wildfires in Oregon as death toll climbs
• What’s causing climate change, in 10 charts
• Frustrated California Governor Gavin Newsom Surveys Fire Zone, Rips “Ideological BS” Around Climate Change & “Absence Of National Leadership”
• Most wildfire coverage on American TV news fails to mention link to climate crisis
• US wildfires could spark financial crisis, advisory panel finds
• California's dark, orange sky is the most unnerving sight I've ever woken up to | Rebecca Solnit
• Wildfires turn San Francisco sky orange as 'unprecedented' conditions stoke blazes across the western US
• Biden's radical climate change plan could overturn the world's efforts
• Western wildfires: An ‘unprecedented’ climate change fueled event, experts say
• Wildfires, Global Climate Change, And The Policy Environment

Dalai Lama Calls For Unified Global Action On Climate Change

CNA - AFP

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (pictured 1996) said in a video message to a virtual G7 meeting that people have more of a sense of shared interest in saving the planet. (Photo: AFP/David Hancock)

WASHINGTON: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama called on world leaders Saturday (Sep 12) to join forces in fighting climate change.

"Now we should pay more attention about global warming," the exiled leader said in a video message to a virtual meeting of Group of Seven parliamentary leaders.

The session was hosted by the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, a longstanding advocate for the Himalayan region.

National leaders have been meeting less frequently with the Dalai Lama due to pressure from China.

In his video address, the Dalai Lama said people today have more of a sense of shared interest in saving the planet.

"If you look (at) past history, too much emphasis individual nation, individual religion, including color," the 85-year-old Buddhist leader said, according to a statement from the International Campaign for Tibet.

"So it creates a lot of problem. Basically, you see, they are selfish, self-centered attitudes," the 1989 Nobel peace laureate said.

Climate change is affecting some of the world's least powerful people, the Dalai Lama added.

"Due to global warming, too much rain some area. Some area dry. So these people suffer," the Dalai Lama said. "Particularly like in Africa and some area in India and China also."

The impact along economic lines is also imbalanced, he added.

"The rich people, big hotel, not much serious sort of feeling," the Dalai Lama said. "But poor people, they really face serious problem."

Saturday's meeting brought Pelosi together with counterparts from Britain, Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

Links

• Dalai Lama Endorses Global Climate Strike
• Dalai Lama: Climate Change Is Destroying Tibet's 'Roof of the World'
• The Dalai Lama Says We Have an ‘Urgent Responsibility’ to Protect Wildlife and the Planet
• Dalai Lama Urges World to Act on Climate Change
• Dalai Lama: Combating Climate Change a Matter of ‘Survival of Humanity’
• Dalai Lama says climate change needs global action
• Dalai Lama says strong action on climate change is a human responsibility
• Dalai Lama’s message to global climate summit shows need for urgent action in Tibet