Posted on 09/15/2020 11:20:32 AM PDT by llevrok
Recently, on national television with George Stephanopoulos, Gov. Jay Inslee said that climate change is almost solely the reason for the devastating fires all across the west. How much veracity is there to this? Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences at the UW, joined the Dori Monson Show to discuss.
What is his reaction to the governor’s comments?
“Well, in general, it’s not true. And one important thing you have to keep in mind is you have to talk about what fires you’re looking at,” Mass said. “Because different fires in different places have different origins. So the fires that we care most about the last week are the fires on the western side of the Oregon Cascades. Those fires were forced by extraordinarily unusual easterly winds with great strength and persistence.” “It hasn’t happened in 50 to 70 years, as far back as the records go, so it’s very unusual,” he added. “Now, here’s the interesting thing. These fires, like all fires on the western side, are all associated with strong easterly winds. Our climate change models suggest that these winds will get less likely into climate change. So not only does Jay Inslee have it wrong, but he has it wrong by 180 degrees. Those kinds of strong winds from the east will probably weaken under global warming.”
The frequency of fires have long existed in the west, and also relate to forest management and suppression, Mass says.
Wildfire is natural to the Western United States. In fact, wildfires were actually much more frequent if you go back 100 years or 150 years ago than now. What we did during the 1920s and 1930s — in that period, we started a real interesting experiment. We started suppressing fire and we did that on a massive scale. We really lowered the number of fires, but that had a very unfortunate effect,” he said. “We completely changed our forests and they have become much more dense. They have all kinds of scrubby trees underneath and the remains of past logging and whatever, and so forest fires now are much more prone to burn and burn catastrophically,” he explained. “So we changed the forest. But that’s not climate change. That’s how we’ve managed or mismanaged the forests. … Another part is also the number of people. We’ve had massive population increases in these areas at the interface between the forests and cities, and that has contributed to tremendous vulnerability.”
Inslee has been wrong on just about anything but the liberal love him because they’re just as stupid as he is.
We all know dimslee is a true believer; what makes it worse is there's too many dumbass Washingtonians who believe this 'climate fire' crap.
they don’t call him Jay Dimslee here in WA for nothing...
the state lands commissioner basically admitted that all the major fires were man-made ... the vast majority of fires are near highways or well-traveled roadways.
Mass is correct - those hot easterly winds last week were really unusual for this area. We had a bit of rain this morning but not enough to make a difference here in the Southern reaches of Puget Sound, still hazy and grey.
I sat on a board of directors with Jay Inslee for about a year, long ago.
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He is sort of bright, but does not do his own research. He is easily pulled around by politically driven environmentalists.
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I am also a timber owner and believe in thinning dead or diseased trees, am doing it now.
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Yes, dead trees are good biomass, but only when you fell them. They won’t rot standing up because water runs off. But they provide great fire fuel when standing dry.
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The timber companies won’t fell dead trees because there is no money in it. They wouldn’t even replant until laws were passed forcing them.
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Our government owns vast tracts of timber that could be thinned. They are in cahoots with the timber companies that refuse to bid on thinning operations.
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It will take an act of congress to make these changes, and taxpayers will have to pick up the cost of the forest roads needed to access the timber.
Having grown up in a Washington state logging community during the 1950’s, I recall many a summer day when the skies were orange from forest fires. There was no climate change claimed then. And we were allowed to play outside with out restrictions from mom and dad.
As to this scientist’s comment that forests are more dense today than ever (more trees and debris) - it used to be said when I was in the forest products industry that there are more trees in North America today than when Columbus came to the New World. My former employer, Weyerhaeuser (for example), plants 5 trees for every one they cut (allowing for attrition and tree thinnings at 10 years). The state law is 3 trees. Natural re-forestation is 2 tress - or less.
Permits allow for access and fire roads to be built in private forests. State and federal forests had roads but these are largely being abandoned. It’s claimed the roads put silt in streams and harm salmon runs. Abandoned roads, built before 1990, put tons of silt into streams and do not allow for easy fire access.
Our property butts up to Pope land (leading NW forest timber company who is very environment conscious; replants after a logging clear cut project; and Pope backs up to the Olympic National forest. We’re surrounded by forest and it’s good to know that Pope manages its property well.
“roads put silt in streams and harm salmon runs”
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If the logging roads are not build correctly, with culverts and bridges, erosion and silting is a problem.
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The biggest cause of silting is clear cuts on steep slopes.
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Selective cutting is the solution, with no cuts within 300 feet of any stream bed, dry or otherwise. Again, the timber companies want bigger profits.
Pope is one of the better ones.
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Trillium is not. I have had enough experience with them E of Stampede Pass. The problem is Burlington Northern owns vast tracts along I-90 and do very little to supervise the cuts they sub out to Trillium.
I guess BN doesn’t have a forestry management division.
They forgot one:
Don't be an arsonist, either in the forest or in the city...or the places in between.
“ They wouldn’t even replant until laws were passed forcing them.”
True and astounding. Evidence of it still easily seen all over western wa.
Ironically, all the little faggot antifa running around starting fires up and down the West coast is causing albedo influenced cooling across the U.S.
l8r
All it takes for a quick, brief drop in temperature during an August day for example, a double-digit drop in some places, is to be in the path of the shadow of a solar eclipse.
Temperatures dropped during total solar eclipse (2017 Solar Eclipse)
Also, consider that nighttime temperatures typically continue to drop until sunrise in places with clear sky.
In other words, CO2 does not hold the heat down like global warming alarmists want everybody to think imo.
Insights welcome.
Send "Orange Man Bad" federal and state government desperate Democrats home in November!
Supporting PDJT with a new patriot Congress and state government leaders that will promise to fully support his already excellent work for MAGA and stopping SARS-CoV-2 will effectively give fast-working Trump a "third term" in office imo.
I don’t see any problem with voting Republican ticket for 2020 elections.
Insights welcome.
>> he has it wrong by 180 degrees. Those kinds of strong winds from the east will probably weaken under global warming
He’s completely wrong because... probably...
Hilarious....the timber companies posted big signs talking all about their “tree farms”.....some farmers huh? that didn’t replant their crops after harvesting?
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The replant laws don’t cover the tribes. Look at their timber, stump farms 50 years later, and they could give a damn. Yet they pride themselves as being the original timber stewards.
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