Brandon GayThe Planet is Burning
October 24th 2007 04:19
Fires are raging in the Coast Range Mountains of Southern California: from Los Angeles County to San Diego. Authorities say it will be Wednesday, October 24 before even a small portion of the fires will be contained. The combination of warm Santa Ana winds and low rainfall for the year makes the perfect conditions for raging fires.
Expect more destructive fires. A study on forest fires released in 2006 discovered more forest fires occurred in the western U.S. since the mid-1980s, coinciding with warmer spring temperatures, earlier mountain snows melting, and hotter summers.
The study found that more fires burnt forested federal land from 1987 to 2003 than during the previous 17 years. Large fires are four times more likely to occur.
Research team member Thomas Swetnam, director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at The University of Arizona in Tucson, said “I see this as one of the first big indicators of climate change impacts in the continental United States.” Swetnam continued, “We’re showing warming and earlier springs tying in with large forest fire frequencies. Lots of people think climate change and the ecological responses are 50 to 100 years away. But it’s not 50 to 100 years away — it’s happening now in forest ecosystems through fire.”
“At higher elevations what really drives the fire season is the temperature. When you have a warm spring and early summer, you get rapid snowmelt,” Anthony Westerling, who led the research team, said. “With the snowmelt coming out a month earlier, areas get drier overall. There is a longer season in which a fire can be started and more opportunity for ignition,” Wessterling continued.
Dan Cayan, study co-author and director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography Climate Research Division, said, “The increase in large wildfires appears to be another part of a chain of reactions to climate warming.” He added, “The recent ramp-up is likely, in part, caused by natural fluctuations, but evidence is mounting that anthropogenic effects have been contributing to warmer winters and springs in recent decades.”
Studies show CO2 levels rising
A new study concluded that human activities are releasing carbon dioxide (CO2) faster than ever, while the natural process that slow CO2 are weakening. According to the report, “together, these effects characterize a carbon cycle that is generating stronger-than-expected climate forcing sooner than expected.”
Certain activities, including burning fossil fuels and rain forest deforestation, between the years 2000 and 2006 contributed an average of 4.1 billion metric tons of carbon per year. The report states that this increase “is the highest since the beginning of continuous monitoring in 1959.”
Co-author Chris Field, director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, says, “The new twist here is the demonstration that weakening land and ocean sinks are contributing to the accelerating growth of atmospheric CO2.”
Carbon intensity increased about 0.3 percent each year since 2000. Most plans to manage CO2 emissions consider that carbon intensity will lessen.
Another new study found that since 2000 CO2 has increased 35 percent faster than expected. Inefficient use of fossil fuels increased carbon levels by 17 percent. The study also found that CO2 emissions increased by 35 percent since 1990.
“The decline in global sink efficiency suggests that stabilization of atmospheric CO2 is even more difficult to achieve than previously thought. We found that nearly half of the decline in the efficiency of the ocean CO2 sink is due to the intensification of the winds in the Southern Ocean,” said study author Dr. Corinne Le Quéré of the University of East Anglia and British Antarctic Survey.
“In addition to the growth of global population and wealth, we now know that significant contributions to the growth of atmospheric CO2 arise from the slow-down of natural sinks and the halt to improvements in the carbon intensity of wealth production,” said Dr. Pep Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project and the study’s lead author.
Expect more destructive fires. A study on forest fires released in 2006 discovered more forest fires occurred in the western U.S. since the mid-1980s, coinciding with warmer spring temperatures, earlier mountain snows melting, and hotter summers.
The study found that more fires burnt forested federal land from 1987 to 2003 than during the previous 17 years. Large fires are four times more likely to occur.
Research team member Thomas Swetnam, director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at The University of Arizona in Tucson, said “I see this as one of the first big indicators of climate change impacts in the continental United States.” Swetnam continued, “We’re showing warming and earlier springs tying in with large forest fire frequencies. Lots of people think climate change and the ecological responses are 50 to 100 years away. But it’s not 50 to 100 years away — it’s happening now in forest ecosystems through fire.”
“At higher elevations what really drives the fire season is the temperature. When you have a warm spring and early summer, you get rapid snowmelt,” Anthony Westerling, who led the research team, said. “With the snowmelt coming out a month earlier, areas get drier overall. There is a longer season in which a fire can be started and more opportunity for ignition,” Wessterling continued.
Dan Cayan, study co-author and director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography Climate Research Division, said, “The increase in large wildfires appears to be another part of a chain of reactions to climate warming.” He added, “The recent ramp-up is likely, in part, caused by natural fluctuations, but evidence is mounting that anthropogenic effects have been contributing to warmer winters and springs in recent decades.”
Studies show CO2 levels rising
A new study concluded that human activities are releasing carbon dioxide (CO2) faster than ever, while the natural process that slow CO2 are weakening. According to the report, “together, these effects characterize a carbon cycle that is generating stronger-than-expected climate forcing sooner than expected.”
Certain activities, including burning fossil fuels and rain forest deforestation, between the years 2000 and 2006 contributed an average of 4.1 billion metric tons of carbon per year. The report states that this increase “is the highest since the beginning of continuous monitoring in 1959.”
Co-author Chris Field, director of the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, says, “The new twist here is the demonstration that weakening land and ocean sinks are contributing to the accelerating growth of atmospheric CO2.”
Carbon intensity increased about 0.3 percent each year since 2000. Most plans to manage CO2 emissions consider that carbon intensity will lessen.
Another new study found that since 2000 CO2 has increased 35 percent faster than expected. Inefficient use of fossil fuels increased carbon levels by 17 percent. The study also found that CO2 emissions increased by 35 percent since 1990.
“The decline in global sink efficiency suggests that stabilization of atmospheric CO2 is even more difficult to achieve than previously thought. We found that nearly half of the decline in the efficiency of the ocean CO2 sink is due to the intensification of the winds in the Southern Ocean,” said study author Dr. Corinne Le Quéré of the University of East Anglia and British Antarctic Survey.
“In addition to the growth of global population and wealth, we now know that significant contributions to the growth of atmospheric CO2 arise from the slow-down of natural sinks and the halt to improvements in the carbon intensity of wealth production,” said Dr. Pep Canadell, executive director of the Global Carbon Project and the study’s lead author.
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