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The largest fires Australia's ever seen are close. Put those fires in the US and the national conversation will certainly shift...

claudeganon 7y ago
But they’ll probably happen in California, which thanks to the truly demented, sadistic cast of our politics, will cause many to celebrate with glee.
- dfxm12 7y ago
  If not glee, you'll at least get some kind of smug righteousness: https://nypost.com/2018/11/20/gop-leader-california-wildfires-are-gods-punishment-for-being-liberal/ https://nypost.com/2018/11/20/gop-leader-california-wildfire...
yters 7y ago
Weren't those fires the result of arson?
- Invictus0 7y ago
  The "arsonists" were just people that left campfires burning; I think the fire ministers have stated that a larger portion of the fires were started by lightning strikes.
- jacoblambda 7y ago
  The majority were either natural starts (lightning) or accidental (unsupervised campfires and I think one was due to a tossed lit cigarette) however after the fires had been burning for a while there were a few cases of arson because some people just like to see the world burn. Regardless of which fires were started by what cause however, the fires burn extremely hot and spread fast as a result of conditions caused by climate change. This turns something as simple as a tossed cigarette into a meaningful fire hazard and turns a normal fire into one that spreads aggressively enough to render it nearly impossible to stop with a large amount of manpower. That makes them actually impossible when they are burning all over the country and the mostly unpaid volunteer fire fighting force is spread thin dealing with them. That's the thing I've taken away from all of this, climate change doesn't necessarily increase the number of incidents to unreasonable levels (the rate goes up but not to apocalyptic levels), instead it takes otherwise minor or normal incidents and sets the conditions to allow them to escalate in increasing severity.
  - yters 7y ago
    How do we know we can attribute the fires to climate change? It seems like every natural disaster gets attributed to climate change, since 'climate change is happening', and, in turn, all these natural disasters are given as evidence that 'climate change is happening'. Seems very circular logic.
    - throwaheyy 7y ago
      Hotter weather dries out vegetation making fires worse. That overall hotter weather is the result of climate change. It's not circular, nor is it that hard to understand.
- ehnto 7y ago
  No. There were hundreds of individual fires across the country, as the entire continent saw unprecedentedly dry weather conditions. It wouldn't matter whether it were lit by lightning, a utility pole or a match, the fact was that the forests and air were unprecedentedly dry and the fires became quickly impossible to control and spread quickly.
dspillett 7y ago
Nah. They'll just blame the gays. Or immigrants. Or something, anything, except what they don't want to change.
- ars 7y ago
  > except what they don't want to change. Except what they can't change.

claudeganon 7y ago

But they’ll probably happen in California, which thanks to the truly demented, sadistic cast of our politics, will cause many to celebrate with glee.

dfxm12 7y ago
If not glee, you'll at least get some kind of smug righteousness: https://nypost.com/2018/11/20/gop-leader-california-wildfires-are-gods-punishment-for-being-liberal/ https://nypost.com/2018/11/20/gop-leader-california-wildfire...

yters 7y ago

Weren't those fires the result of arson?

Invictus0 7y ago
The "arsonists" were just people that left campfires burning; I think the fire ministers have stated that a larger portion of the fires were started by lightning strikes.
jacoblambda 7y ago
The majority were either natural starts (lightning) or accidental (unsupervised campfires and I think one was due to a tossed lit cigarette) however after the fires had been burning for a while there were a few cases of arson because some people just like to see the world burn. Regardless of which fires were started by what cause however, the fires burn extremely hot and spread fast as a result of conditions caused by climate change. This turns something as simple as a tossed cigarette into a meaningful fire hazard and turns a normal fire into one that spreads aggressively enough to render it nearly impossible to stop with a large amount of manpower. That makes them actually impossible when they are burning all over the country and the mostly unpaid volunteer fire fighting force is spread thin dealing with them. That's the thing I've taken away from all of this, climate change doesn't necessarily increase the number of incidents to unreasonable levels (the rate goes up but not to apocalyptic levels), instead it takes otherwise minor or normal incidents and sets the conditions to allow them to escalate in increasing severity.
- yters 7y ago
  How do we know we can attribute the fires to climate change? It seems like every natural disaster gets attributed to climate change, since 'climate change is happening', and, in turn, all these natural disasters are given as evidence that 'climate change is happening'. Seems very circular logic.
  - throwaheyy 7y ago
    Hotter weather dries out vegetation making fires worse. That overall hotter weather is the result of climate change. It's not circular, nor is it that hard to understand.
ehnto 7y ago
No. There were hundreds of individual fires across the country, as the entire continent saw unprecedentedly dry weather conditions. It wouldn't matter whether it were lit by lightning, a utility pole or a match, the fact was that the forests and air were unprecedentedly dry and the fires became quickly impossible to control and spread quickly.

dspillett 7y ago

Nah. They'll just blame the gays. Or immigrants. Or something, anything, except what they don't want to change.

ars 7y ago
> except what they don't want to change. Except what they can't change.