More ‘Megafires’ To Come, Say Scientists
Fires of unprecedented ferocity are sweeping around the world, fuelled by global warming and misguided environmentalism.
Dubbed “megafires”, they rage over thousands of miles at 1,000C and create their own weather, even triggering tornadoes. Rapidly increasing in number, they are often unquenchable by any human efforts, burning unchecked until they reach coasts or are put out by heavy rainfall.
The devastating fires that have ravaged Greece killed at least 63 people and charred 482,000 acres of land. This summer, as record heatwaves hit much of southern Europe, more than 1.9 million acres have gone up in smoke .
Matters are even worse in the United States, where 20 years ago, fires burning over 5,000 acres were relatively rare. In the past 10 years, however, there have more than 200 conflagrations 10 times the size. Last year, 9.6 million acres of the country were devastated, beating an all-time record set 2005. This is the sixth time in the past decade that a record year has immediately been surpassed in the following 12 months.
A year ago the Australian state of Victoria suffered 200 fires in a single day. There have also been megafires in France, Spain, Portugal, Canada, Russia, Mongolia, Indonesia, South Africa and Brazil.
Experts agree that they are caused partly by droughts and higher temperatures brought by global warming, but they also point to conservation practices which have discouraged controlled burning of forests and caused a huge build-up of up to 30 of 40 tons of tinder dry kindling on each acre of ground. Once lit - by lightning, arson or human error - they produce 20ft flames and generate temperatures of up to 1,200C. At this intensity they generate their own winds. One such fire caused tornados near Canberra in 2003.
Professor Stephen J Pyne, an expert at Arizona State University called the fires “climatic tsunamis”, and Kevin O’Loughlin, the head of Melbourne’s Bushfire Co-operative Research Centre added: “They cannot be controlled by any suppression resources that we have available anywhere in the world.”
© 2007 The Independent
God made a covenenat with Noah after the floods. He promised to never destroy mankind with flooding ever again. He said the next time,___ the Earth would be burned. Well, God or no God,___ we’re damn sure burning it. The astronauts say when circling the globe, that when seeing the darkened side, it looks as if much of the planet is on fire. They cannot however, detect those imaginary map lines that seperate country’s, states and national boundry’s.
When we have killed off enough of the ocean’s phytoplankton with man made pollutants and our oxygen is depleted, the fires will begin in earnest. The insane killing of a most vital plant specie is already in well in progress and we continue to pollute our only home with poisons, atomic waste, desroy our vital rain forests and burn coal, oil and dump millions of tons of toxic wastes into the oceans.
Humans are so very much like those insane rodents, the Lemming.
Kem,
The amount of flooding is just as prominent on a global scale. Astronauts can’t see it because it’s not shiny. We’ll drown and then burn, and then drown again. It’s our penance for being a freak of nature species.
Of course, when the smoke clears, more CO2 will be in the atmosphere than the climate change models expected. Feedback loops are never part of the calculations.
.
Meanwhile US makes frog leg soup, slowly turning up the heat with democcupation. (The End of Nature (Bill McKibbon) is not arriving quickly enough. Democcupation provides for the democratic occupation of former nations who have not liberated our resources located in their lands. Since everything belongs to US, their refusal to hand it over is selfish.) US needs those energy resources to dry out the planet for more megafires. US needs to dominate over all Creation including anyone not with US. (Satire mode off.)
.
The cockroach will inherit the earth.
Kem,
Give me a break with biblical quotations…
wishfullthinker - Kem is right, when the permafrost thaws (and it’s beginning to do that now) and releases all that methane we will have the biggest fire ever - or, think explosion. Methane is much better at that than oxygen.
I thought the smoke would reflect heat back out into space, same as with volcanic ash. That’s a feedback loop, isn’t it?
What do you wish to have broken Maelstrom?
If we wish to be totally serious, forget the Bible quotes for any who may be offended, when the ocean’s phytoplankton’s numbers fall below 50%, from man made toxic pollution, we will have a rather serious problem.
BTW, their numbers have reduced by 10% in the past few years according to many scientists, and no one know exactly what is killing off those vitally necessary for all life plants. The major suspect is man-made pollutants, nuclear waste, chemicals and burning coal, runoffs from land that had previouly been heavily forrested etc. We smart humans have managed to exterminate all types of life on Earth.
The tiny phytoplankton furnish our planet and all life, with from 65 to 70% of it’s oxygen. When those plants are dead and our atmosphere lacks suffecient oxygen, the sun’s rays will finish off what atmosphere is left by burning it off. Of course by that time all life, save perhaps some bacteria will be gone and the atmosphere will be full of methane gas and it wlll ignote. For a brief period of time, the Earth wil be a huge ball of fire. All moisture, save ‘perhaps’ some small dirt covered ice at the poles will be gone. What do you have then? Another dead planet____ like Mars. Earth will have been destroyed by fire. Therefore, in that sense, the Biblical quotes are correct, no matter who may have penned them. Those aren’t my opinions, the phytoplankton are dying and if it continues, ___a great big fire will eventually result. It could be just a matter of a few years too.
How’s that for a break?
Don’t worry KEM PATRICK. You’re right. Humans are history. Our time is over and sometimes I think the sooner the better.
But, no matter what we do on our way out, life WILL prevail. Most likely the next sentient life to inhabit Earth won’t breathe oxygen or be concerned about temperatures that will cook us naked apes.
So be it. We had our chance.
http://www.astrobiology.com/extreme.html
http://www.livescience.com/animals/050207_extremophiles.html
Funny, It rained here most every day this summer..if you can call it summer.
My thesis is that the fascist USA will become an inhabitable desert, and pacifist Canada will become a tropical paradise…if there is a god, these would surly qualify as “just desserts”
I cant wait to treat US refugees the way the USA has treated Mexicans.
You can’t wait to treat us the way we treated Mexicans Canuck?
Darn, I thought you were better than us, at least your blogs seem to read that way.
Joking with you there Kanuk.___he-he_ yuk yuk.
Anyway, a lot of the refugees sneaking in will be Mexicans, I think they outnumber us Gringos now. Treat em Good buddy, they will work for next to nothing, ask for and get free health care, demand and get bi-lingual language on everything, including voting ballots, llega aid and books in schools. When they get into trouble with the law, or a gringo, they won”t understand English or French. As a society, they really are very nice people who are much more pleasant than those displaced frogs who live in Quebec.
Humans are so very much like those insane rodents, the Lemming.
Really Kem? I think the Lemmings may be smarter. I mean Lemmings do not choose to live in their own filth then wonder aloud what is wrong with my water and air? I’ll bet you didn’t know that the Lemmings running over the cliff was a hoax either?
http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp
http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s1081903.htm
http://www.wildlifenews.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlife_news.view_article&issue_id=6&articles_id=56
http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-69-1462-9709/life_society/myths_and_legends/clip9
Many of those fires were lit by persons wanting the land. Forests and undeveloped land are precious in europe, and protected.
Shikantaza, no I didn’t know that, thank you for the info. Actually, humans are a one of a kind specie.