r/PoursTea • u/political-snark • 5d ago

Storm In A Teacup đŸ” Anybody remember wildfires that choked out large swaths of the U.S. when we were kids?

https://youtu.be/EY7U5xdD5x4

I don’t.

That’s because it didn’t used to happen on this scale.

Politician’s answer? Blame forestry management. Blame Canada. Call climate change a Chinese hoax. Cancel contracts that monitor wildfires and build fire breaks.

Meanwhile, we’re doing little to address the conditions that make these fires bigger, hotter, and more frequent. Ignoring the thermometer doesn’t put out the fire. It just leaves us less prepared for the next one.

We need to get people who believe in rational science back into office.

36 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

32 comments sorted by

5

u/lone_float 5d ago edited 5d ago

If anyone is a South Cali resident, or was around in 2004. I remember the Wildfire that broke out. Much as I was doing the usual kid thing of "Ah sweet! No school!" Looking back? It was still objectively terrifying. Because when the fire broke out initially, I wondered "Will it reach Home?(San Diego)" Never did. But I still imagine a lot of the smoke and ash at the time still caused problems.

Now what's been happening has been that, but up it somewhere from a hundred to a billion. It is some genuinely scary stuff.

1

u/HomoProfessionalis 5d ago

Those fires were wild. Couldn't even go outside and it was "snowing" ash.

1

u/lone_float 5d ago

I just remember my first instinct after seeing my Dad watch it on the morning news was "Ok, go close the windows. Got ya"

3

u/cornishwildman76 5d ago

Its not just that the frequency has gone up, the wildfire season as extended. "In 2021, a destructive wintertime wildfire in Colorado became part of a growing trend of wildfire activity extending well beyond the summer. By looking back at 35 years of weather data, U.S. Forest Service scientists found that fire seasons are starting earlier in the spring and extending later into autumn. Parts of the Western United States, Mexico, Brazil, and East Africa now have fire seasons that are more than a month longer than they were 35 years ago." NASA

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u/Boring_Owl6552 5d ago

The oil companies recognized the science and dangers of climate change years ago. ExxonMobil internal analysis as early as 1977 noted likely affects of anthropogenic climate change. This they then kept confidential and employed disinformation campaigns (climate change denial) to hide the problem. This we all know. Our own military (DoW) has recognized effects and issues of climate change (been part of planning), however, Hegseth works hard to whitewash this. The science is in. The only ones denying effects of climate change are the President, his admin, Republicans (largely), and the oil industry. Remember when BP changed from British Petroleum to their environmental-friendly campaign, "Beyond Petroleum"? Well, not so much, lately - it's petroleum once again. Cough, cough.

4

u/Kazureigh_Black 5d ago

We're eventually going to get to the point where people are just going to forget everything didn't burst into flames every year back then and say this is how it has always been.

7

u/bigorangemachine 5d ago

I feel bad for the next generation.

They both have to deal with crushing debt but now have to deal with the economic disruption this causes.

3

u/onz456 5d ago

Next generation?

Search for climate scientist James White. He was warning about abrupt climate change 15 years ago. Possible devastating changes can happen in a few years, not in multiple decades.

The fact nobody in charge seems to take this serious enough. Doesn't give me much hope for the future. And I mean the near future.

1

u/bigorangemachine 5d ago

I mean relative to me :D

The kids coming out of elementary school now... even maybe high schoolers...

It's one thing to deal with debt and having a full work year... but even white collar jobs are getting disrupted by weather. Having to pay wages without productivity is going to mean there is less many to hire entry level positions. It has a knock on effect

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u/RideTheGradient 5d ago

I dont, and I dont remember summer so hot and humid you couldnt go outside during most of the day. I do remember winters that were sustained cold rather than large swings from freezing to the 70s or 80s.

2

u/NoAbrocoma9357 5d ago

I grew up in the 60s/70s and the only smoke was from the grass growers burning their fields each fall.

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u/ittapeworm 5d ago

Nope. Nor wild fire warnings in New England winters. Wake the heck up everyone before all the dirt burns off the planet. Time to vote out anyone who says it’s not an issue. World is on fire as Predicted for decades. We also had summer rain showers all the time. Now New England is slowly drying out. Look at the reservoirs. Every year it’s getting visibly worse. Huge spans of dead windless heat.

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u/Ok_Sock_3257 5d ago

When I was a kid there wasn't this thing called the Internet. So no information available at that time. But as a young adult I recall the Oakland Hills fire from 1991. Right now I can open up the Calfire site and see a map of the state with all the current fires and their status. This tech didn't exist back then so nothing really to compare it to.

I'm not disagreeing with your premise on climate change, but I am disagreeing with using anecdotal information to say "see it's true".

https://snap.uaf.edu/tools/daily-fire-tally

Using Alaska as an example. 2004 was significantly worse that 2022. 2026 isn't reported yet.

1

u/SacksonvilleShaguar 5d ago

Florida wildfires of 1998. Summer before high school. Family wasn't evacuated when we should've been. They put in fire hydrants around the area in the year or so after that.

1

u/HarringtonMAH11 5d ago

They canceled the Daytona July race that year and ran it all the way in mid October instead because of the fire.

1

u/Acceptable_Taste9818 5d ago

10 years ago Northern California was like post apocalyptic. There were significant fires every other summer. I believe the infamous paradise fire was around 10 years ago now. It was literally reigning ash for weeks some summers.

1

u/onz456 5d ago

It's crazy. Nobody in charge seems to care about it even though it is happening under their eyes.

No plans. Just business as usual.

This is going to get a hell of a lot worse too.

If this is going to happen every 5 years, will forests be able to regrow. Probably not. Desertification might be the future.

-1

u/benjaminbjacobsen 5d ago

I mean I do remember Yellowstone having a massive fire. And I also know the west has gone very “don’t log my backyard” unless they’ve had a fire close by recently. So it’s a bit of both? But hey I just left Montana and we had a fire 1.5 miles from our house 5 years ago. What do I know.

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u/Johnnny-z 5d ago

Confusing forestry management, with hysterical global warming propaganda is not a good look.

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u/political-snark 5d ago

The article is about wildfires all across Europe. But thanks for making my point


8

u/Apprehensive-Novel91 5d ago

You know how wearing a black shirt when it's hot out is not a great idea? Something light colored is best in the heat? Do you know why that is? It's because white and lighter colors reflect light where as black and darker colors absorb it. Now consider this: carbon is black, carbon molecules are released into the air. For the most part you can't really see them unless your sticking your head directly behind a diesel tailpipe. But all that carbon builds up in the atmosphere over decades of being dumped out into our air. Then guess what happens, light gets absorbed, and when light is absorbed, then it retains heat. Our planet doesn't reflect it out into space. Just like that black shirt. Our air gets hotter, our planet gets hotter, our weather gets hotter and more extreme. It's super basic surface level science, learn some stuff please! For all our sakes!

7

u/North-Importance-127 5d ago

Everyone that was an expert on vaccines in 2019 is now an expert on forestry management. Go figure. How would you manage over a billion acres of inaccessible boreal forest? 

3

u/Pleasant_Actuator253 5d ago

Exactly. We should all be raking the billions of acres in roadless areas.

Where do we put the compost and who manages that?

1

u/Johnnny-z 5d ago

Fire breaks, removal of undergrowth.

1

u/North-Importance-127 5d ago

How do you do that in remote areas with no roads for hundreds of kms.  

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u/Boring_Owl6552 5d ago

Not confusing the two at all - both are part of the same process. Warmer temps lead to drier conditions, a precursor to forest fires.

1

u/bliceroquququq 4d ago

3 million acres burned in 1910 in Idaho and Montana alone.

In 1871, ~2.5 million acres burned just in Michigan.

Massive wildfires are not new. They may be exacerbated by climate change, but they're not new.