Australian Fires Add to CO2 Load

February 15, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Besides the immediate death (180) and destruction from the fires raging in south eastern Australia there is this:

VICTORIA’S bushfires have released a massive amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere – almost equal to Australia’s industrial emission for an entire year.

Mark Adams, from the University of Sydney, said the emissions from bushfires were far beyond what could be contained through carbon capture and needed to be addressed in the next international agreement.

“Once you are starting to burn millions of hectares of eucalypt forest, then you are putting into the atmosphere very large amounts of carbon,” Professor Adams said.

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Australia's Hell on Earth

February 10, 2009 by Leave a Comment

The always interesting WunderBlog by Jeff Masters has a good post about the horrific fires in south east Australia.

Spectacular nocturnal heat burst

On the morning of January 29, an exceptional nocturnal heat event occurred in the northern suburbs of Adelaide around 3 a.m. Strong northwesterly winds mixed hot air aloft to the surface. At RAAF Edinburgh, the temperature rose to 107°F (41.7°C) at 3:04 am. Such an event appears to be without known precedent in southern Australia.

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Australia: Greatest Natural Disaster – Death Toll Mounts

February 9, 2009 by Leave a Comment

australiafire The wildfires that have so far claimed more than 170 lives in Australia highlight vulnerabilities in a country where the population is spilling into rural areas already under stress from sometimes extreme weather conditions.

Police suspect arsonists played a role in starting the blazes in Australia, one of the worst natural disasters in the country’s history.

Officials struggled to contain the flames, which obliterated at least two towns over the weekend and continued to burn Monday in grasslands and forests north of Melbourne, the capital of the southeastern state of Victoria.

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More Fires in California

July 27, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Just barely two weeks past ferocious wildfires in California another lifts its licking tongues — this time near Yosemite Valley.

An out-of-control wildfire burning Sunday near an entrance to Yosemite National Park has forced hundreds of residents to flee as flames whipped through a rugged canyon untouched by fire for a century.

The fast-spreading blaze has charred 16,000 acres since Friday as wooded slopes ignited amid hot, dry conditions that have plagued California for months. The steep terrain west of the park is overgrown with dense brush that is fueling the flames, fire officials said.

“There’s no fire history in the past 100 hundred years. That’s one of the reasons this fire’s been able to burn so erratically,” said Daniel Berlant, spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The wildfire led officials to order the evacuations of 170 homes under immediate threat. About 2,000 homes faced at least some danger from the fast-spreading flames, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.


Yosemite Fire

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California Fire News Improving

July 12, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Buried away in section B of the Chron, after weeks of front page headlines, was the news that the three big fires in California have much quieted.

The Butte fire which threatened Paradise and pushed 6,500 out of their homes has retreated and the people allowed to return. The Big Basin fire in Big Sur is retreated to higher hills after threatening just about everything. Highway One is re-opened. The Tassajara Zen retreat barely escaped with just four out-buildings burned. The Goleta fire has been 80% contained with a few evacuation warnings still in effect.

With all the other chaos in the air, from collapsing mega-banks to agony in Iraq and Afghanistan it’s unlikely that the lessons of these fires will be burned into our collective consciousness. Except for those who were directly affected they will be lost in hazy memory by August. Too bad. As the Continental Army died by the thousands in New York during the summer of 1776, Washington, Greene and others could read the signs: cleanliness, cleanliness, cleanliness was the order of the day. Without it, the Republic would be lost. We might use the same: clean the air, clean the air, clean the air — of all sorts of impurities but above all CO2, should be the morning motto of everyone who loves the world.

Stiff punishments were handed out for shitting in the trenches. We should do the same.

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More and More Fires in CA

June 22, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Wildfires were scattered around Northern California on Sunday in the heart of wine country and in remote forests, the latest in what has become an unusually destructive year.

State officials said lightning started more than 500 fires during the weekend.

One had spread across 5.5 square miles by early Sunday, after starting Saturday afternoon in Napa County and quickly moving into a mostly rural area of Solano County.

Califire

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More Fires in CA

June 21, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Just when the big Santa Cruz mountain fire died down, another further north started up. When it was under control another near Watsonville began. 500 people evacuated. Highway 5 shut down.

“A series of fires burned 300-500 acres north of Watsonville on Friday afternoon, chasing 400 people from their homes and closing a 5-mile stretch of northbound Highway 1 in a scene that one witness called apocalyptic. ”

Watsonville Fire

And of course, with so many able-bodied off fighting a war, the lack for fighting fires is getting close to pretty damned scary.

The number of employed Forest Service firefighters is 8.5 percent below the 4,432 seasonal workers authorized for Region 5, which includes California, Hawaii and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands, according to Feinstein.

She [Senator Feinstein] also expressed concern that only 186 of the agency’s 276 engines were available to respond to fires and that a new C-130J aircraft will not be available this year for air tanker duty.

The vacancies come at a time when the economic impact of soaring gas prices is being felt throughout the economy, including the firefighting budget. There has been less money available for firefighter training in California, which is facing a budget deficit of some $15 billion.

Hire Everyone Qualified

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Fires Hit California

October 22, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Update below.

We’ve been keeping you abreast of the evil twins of drought and fire this late summer. Idaho and Montana have been under continuous siege. 2007 is now the second worst fire season in recorded history, led only by 2005. [“60 Minutes” took a look last night.] Now the news strikes home in California. Sunday the news began with of Malibu. [It is still 100% not controlled.] This morning 7 big Southern California counties are being affected:

Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.

Fires

Meanwhile, the South East, from Virginia to Louisiana, is banning outdoor watering and water intensive businesses, like nurseries, are in trouble. See this cool mouse-roll-over map for a quick look.

Up in the Great Lakes, water level is down by 7 inches with all sorts of implications for life, commercial and environmental.

Update on Fires

The National Interagency Fire Center has updates and names for all the SoCal fires. Nursing homes are being evacuated in some areas.

Update II

Nasa pic of fires

NASA Picture of Fires in California

[thx Ruth Friend]

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Fire Watch

October 20, 2007 by 1 Comment

Well, 2007 has finally squeezed past 2005 as the second most destructive wild-fire year in the U.S. for the decade in recorded history, leaving 2006 in the lead. That means the three most destructive years — as measured by acres burned — are the last three. Fires follow drought, follow forest ill-health, follow lightning (mostly) and human causes. Drought increasing — unless you live in northeast India / Pakstan or across the throat of Africa where your choice is flood.

8,284,271 Acres Burned

Update:

60 Minutes took on the fires in the west the Sunday [excuse the ads]

The lead is that these are “mega fires, ten times as big as the fires we’re used to seeing.” The fires in 2006 I mention above, and link to, are “the most severe in recorded history.” (I assume he means in the US.)

Tom Bodner, the Chief of Fire Operatons for the Feds, says of the Ketchum Idaho fire this summer, that 10 – 15 years ago a fire of its size and intensity would have been extremely rare. “They’re commonplace these days.” Ten years ago a 100,000 acre fire was rare. Today a 200,000 acre fire is a regular day…. In 2007 there have been two fires over 500,000 acres.

Seven of the ten busiest fire seasons since 1967 have happened in the past 8 years.

Tree ring analysis shows that recent decades have been the hottest in one thousand years. In addition there have been more fires at higher elevation. Spring has been coming earlier every year, the snow melting and water running off. The fire season in the last fifteen years has increased by over two months, in the western US.

The megafires burn so hot, and are so big it is possible that some will never grow back. Up to half the forests in the west may become other types of ecosystems.

Says Bodner: You won’t find anyone on the fire lines in the American West who doesn’t believe in climate change. We’ve been seeing changes in temperature and humidity and drought that is different than anything we’ve seen in our life times.

Update II Fires sweeping through Malibu Sunday. Doubled in size in an hour. Santa Ana winds + the dryest summer on record. Another fire to the north in the Angeles mountains.

CBS on Malibu

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