Top Wildfire Fighter: "We've Had Climate Change Beat Into Us"

Just posted to the National Wildlife Federation blog on how climate change is fueling the Arizona wildfires and may be permanently changing Western wildlife habitats.

Watch more as Scott Pelley of +CBS News' 60 Minutes interviews Tom Boatner, the federal government's chief of fire operations, on the front lines on the connection between global warming and wildfires:

Wildfires Destroying Colorado: Worth Debating?

Tonight's presidential debate will be held in Colorado, where wildfires recently burned 202,425 acres of land (316.3 square miles). Those wildfires killed five people, forced the evacuation of 34,500 people, and destroyed over 600 homes.

It's part of a pattern: Scientists say global warming is making large wildfires more frequent and more intense. America's next president will have to address the problem in both the short-term (more federal money going to disaster response & relief) and in the long-term (cutting carbon pollution and/or dealing with our constantly-rising cost of inaction).

Seems like something that's worth having Barack Obama and Mitt Romney discuss at tonight's debate, don't you think?

Wild West

And now a poem from my dad:

Wild West 

Oh, give me a place
where there used to be space
and the water was there to wash cars
but now there are droughts
and the forest fires sprout
and the pipeline will leave quite a scar. 

Massachusetts Media Fails to Connect 2012's Extreme Weather to Climate Change

Massachusetts has had an record-shattering warm and dry start to 2012, resulting in brush fires - but with rare exceptions, the local media isn't connecting the extreme weather to global warming for their audience.

Polls and Beltway discussion focuses on whether Americans accept climate science and support action, but that whistles past the media's role in the matter. What if the public's knowledge of the climate threat and how it's already impacting their community is being obscured, misinformed by a media that's either not up to date on the topic, afraid to tackle it & face Tea Party blowback, or letting their own political leanings color their coverage?

Meteorologists often say they avoid talking about climate change's impact on weather because they don't want to be political. But the connection between global warming and increased wildfire frequency & intensity is well-documented. Omitting scientific reality in the face of political pressure IS politicizing the issue.

Imagine if Big Oil and its allies started denying another weather phenomenon - say, hurricanes. Would meteorologists bow to political pressure and not connect hurricanes to their local weather impacts? "Violent wind, torrential rain & extremely high tides this weekend ... uh, weird!"

Last Month Was America's 2nd-Hottest August On Record

The latest State of the Climate report is out from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. The top news:

• August of 2011 was the 2nd-hottest ever in the United States
• Globally, August was the 8th-hottest on record
• So far, 2011 is Earth's 11th-hottest year on record

On top of that, not only did Texas' June through August break the record for hottest three-month stretch for any state, but Oklahoma's June through August is #2 on the list. The Dust Bowl's been pushed to third - by more than a full degree.

What's the impact of that extreme heat, and with it extreme drought? As the Texas Forest Service put it, "No one on the face of this Earth has ever fought fires in these extreme conditions."

Watch how fast the winds of Tropical Storm Lee whipped one wildfire through Texas (in real time):



Might be time for climate science deniers to face reality.