Once again, the June Pacific Northwest heatwave was not caused by climate change. At best global warming contributed a few degrees Fahrenheit to the temperatures. This heat wave was due to a complex set of factors which are possible with a low probability both with and without climate change. Without global warming it would still have been a record breaking event, the kind that can take place once in a century. Unfortunately news media all ran alarmist headlines on this event that lacked evidence, ignoring what actual climate scientists like Professor Cliff Mass of the University of Washington said: https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2021/07/flawed-heatwave-repor...
It is unfortunate that academics and journalists are abandoning balanced discourse in favor of advocacy.
As for wildfires - we need a significant investment in the management of our lands as well as updated regulation that makes it easier for landowners to thin their forests. Today’s forests are very different from forests a hundred years ago. This talk from a US Forest Service expert describes how today’s forests are problematic and and how the problem is actually a social problem - one of awareness and motivation to act by implementing mechanical thinning, clean up, and prescribed burns: https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_hessburg_why_wildfires_have_g...
Cliff Mass’s post is a good read. I can barely justify faulting climate change deniers anymore exactly due to the kind of very low quality reporting of the science behind it that he points out.
It is unfortunate that academics and journalists are abandoning balanced discourse in favor of advocacy.
As for wildfires - we need a significant investment in the management of our lands as well as updated regulation that makes it easier for landowners to thin their forests. Today’s forests are very different from forests a hundred years ago. This talk from a US Forest Service expert describes how today’s forests are problematic and and how the problem is actually a social problem - one of awareness and motivation to act by implementing mechanical thinning, clean up, and prescribed burns: https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_hessburg_why_wildfires_have_g...