People are making an acrid stink about wildfires in South Carolina. For instance (h/t Climate Depot) Bill Nye the “Science” guy told CNN “there’s wildfires in the Carolinas? That didn’t use to be a thing, everybody”. Tony Heller had tried to slam on the brakes before that particular fire engine got going, sirens wailing, with his usual dive into the archives to unearth evidence of big fires in the past, observing that “A lot of people have been saying that South Carolina’s largest fire occurred in 1976. This is not correct. There was a much larger fire during February 1898, and Tasmania was on fire that same week.” And Matthew Wielicki presents charted data showing that actually fires do seem to have increased in the Palmetto State… from 1950 until 1980. Then, as the climate emergency hit, they too fled. But see everybody knows, so who cares about facts?
Thus Heller’s warning came too late. Heatmap got in with “Why the South Is America’s Newest Tinderbox”, for an interview that starts reasonably with the fact that there have always been fires and many factors including ill-advised forest management are contributing. But then (cue the circus music):
“as the climate shifts, we see the length of those seasons growing to the point where the fall is approaching the spring. Wildfires in January and February indicate that these two seasons are growing toward one another and providing a much longer season. Our paper showed that, when you account for climate change across all of those global climate models and representative concentration pathways, the windows for more wildfire activity and more intense wildfire activity are expanding.”
As for the fire deficit over past centuries, well, never mind because climate.
Does anyone remember following the science? Evidently not. Instead:
“Extreme weather events are becoming more common across the U.S., including in the Southeast and the Carolinas.”
And the dreaded “weather whiplash” strikes instead of the dreaded fact check, common sense or courageous dissent.
The Washington Post joins in the fun. It admits that:
“There are more wildfires in the southeast than any other part of the country in a given year, said David Wear, director of the Land Use, Forestry, and Agriculture Program at the think tank Resources for the Future.”
Yes, and always were? Ah but nay:
“Typically, the fires are smaller and confined to the spring and fall, he said – but spring is coming earlier and earlier…. The Southeast is seeing an increasing number of large wildfires, according to researchers. A study Wear conducted with members of the U.S. Forest Service that published in December found that the Southeast will face increased wildfire exposure as climate change worsens and the region’s population grows.”
Will face. Is facing. Already faced. Time is a difficult concept when it comes to climate alarmism, or an elastic one. But of course in real life the Carolinas, like the rest of the United States, are seeing a lot fewer fires, and fewer major ones, than they did in the 18th century. Or so say you know who.
Thus Bill Nye’s explanation for why people don’t share his view was of course that they are wicked paid liars:
“you can take campaign financing from the fossil fuel industry and you can pretend climate’s not changing and hurricanes aren’t becoming more frequent and flooding isn’t more…”
And it’s always nice to see someone taking the high road. But aren’t there any meteorologists who want to object that hurricanes are not becoming more frequent wherever he thinks he was talking about, or that there have always been fires in the Carolinas? We don’t expect modern journalists to know much of anything, or to do homework before interviewing such a guest. But are there no scientists with the integrity to object publicly?
P.S. When in doubt, blame Trump. Thus Scientific Advocacy’s “Climatewire” snickers “Efforts to limit wildfires in a conservative swath of northern Colorado are the latest casualty of the Trump administration’s on-and-off federal spending freeze.”
Somehow a longer growing season is now a bad thing
Well yes, a longer growing season is a bad thing for the Golalist Psychopaths because a longer growing season produces more food and what they want is food shortages so as to weaken and kill off the population.
Growing seasons are usually longer during warm periods,like the Modern Warm Period we are currently experiencing.But if you're a person or org that gets funding because they say climate change bad,I don't think they're gonna start revising or fact checking their own alarmist claims.Lest that funding dry up,or they get relieved of their duties.
Take the money away from the climate grift and the "science" will follow!
That's the lie, the rich elite do not want to kill of populations, their life depends on fleecing large populations. They want food shortages, or rather faked food shortages, to increase prices to increase profit for all of them. Profit means skimming money/work of other's back in order to not have to work oneself. Money is work, all goods are produced by work, and service is work. Work addition makes products marketable/tradable, and is represented by currency, mistaken as money by most. Currency, unless precious substance like gold and silver, is almost worthless in itself, e.g., paper currency, requiring almost no work to produce. Currency/tender/IOU only represents money/work, it is not the actual work/goods. Currency allows work to be easily traded in complex human societies, taken advantage by profiteers and racketeers (rich elite, heads of government, corporation, corporation, societal institutions) that don't like to work themselves, preferring easy money that brings power, control, and fame which brings more of the easy money/profit.
I grew up on the border of NC and VA, spent the last 25 years in the two Carolinas for a total of 60 of my 68 years. Fire season has always been a thing in the Spring but I can never remember any that caused anywhere near the extent of damage as the fires out west do. The few big ones burned at most a thousand acres but most only a hundred acres or less before being extinguished. Where I live now, SE SC, I see the smoke from large controlled burns nearly everyday. It's a thing that has to happen in order to manage the forest and savannahs.
Controlled burns are standard in the south east from January into March. This fire was started by a woman burning trash in a barrel close to a neighbor’s trees. At that time there were numerous warnings in the region about “No burning “. She has been arrested and charged.
As a previous commenter pointed out control burns in this region are standard practice. Shortly after World War Two, about 5% of the forest was lost to wildfires. Prescribed burns became standard practice in forest management . By the early 1980’s that had been reduced to about 0.5%. In the past 45 years it has decreased further as prescribed burn and sustainable forest management have become more prevalent. Prescribed burns are not done when the conditions were as they were several weeks ago.
However, it is hard to fix irresponsibility, it is much easier to blame climate change.
Just how is it possible that an arson event is elided into all the other inaccuracies that are presented by the MSM as a climate related event? It's simply lies and propaganda, and completely shameless. The only reason 'journalists' do this AND get away with it is they know their 'journalist ' friends won't call them out...because they're doing exactly the same thing. And not enough people bother to check, or view sites like these.
I recently moved to North Carolina, not too far from the area in South Carolina where the recent fires occurred. If there has been an increase in wildfires, though I understand there is not, I would consider the relatively recent change in land use as a factor. In the past, 50 plus years ago, much of the rural land had been cleared of trees and was used to grow crops. Some of the land was left tree covered, pine being the predominant tree. Today, I’d say from observation as I drive around, that much of that formerly cleared land has been left fallow, to the point that pine trees now cover an equal if not greater area than that used to actively grow crops. Some trees are neatly growing in rows evenly space, indicating intentional planting, though the majority look to be natural growth. This is private land, not managed by forestry experts, with deadfall and brush in its natural state. It is not being managed or cleared as a National or State Forest might be. The trees themselves have become the crop, occasionally logged here and there by the descendants of former formers. These tree farmers are not properly managing the forest on land that was formerly growing crops, resulting in more fuel available for fires, should someone carelessly burn debris on their land, a common practice, and what was the cause of the recent wildfire in the Myrtle Beach area. I believe that the increase in naturally growing trees on private land, improperly managed, has increased the odds of wildfire beyond what is was 50 or 100 plus years ago.