Earth Equity News

California's Fires, at 2,000 So Far this Year, Will Only Worsen as Earth Warms. SFChron, July 21, 2008. "California has been hit by 2,000 fires this year, and climate scientists are predicting that the situation will worsen as temperatures rise. The American West has been warming dramatically during the past 60 years at a rate surpassed only by Alaska. This year has been particularly dry for California, with less snowfall, earlier snowmelt and lower summer river flows. Some of the state's top scientists say the changing water picture is caused by humans producing greenhouse gases, and the U.N.'s IPCC predicts more intense and longer droughts with warmer spring and summer temperatures in the West. That, scientists say, leads to increases in the length of the fire seasons, number of fires, time needed to put out the fire and size of the burned area. 'The snow melts sooner, the dry season gets longer and rivers crest earlier. That gives more of a chance for drying out and therefore a likelihood of more fires,' said Tim Barnett, a climatologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego who led research on the effects of greenhouse gases on the changing hydrology in the western U.S. 'If you look at where we will be in 20 or 30 years, we'll have serious problems.'"