Global Warming and Wildfires

While reading recently about the wildfires in Colorado, which is a topic that is very real to me right now because of being close to being evacuated, breathing smoke every day, seeing the destruction the wildfires cause, etc., I saw something that completely blew my mind. The immense destruction of the recent wildfires is blamed on global warming by some people.

When I read this, I was shocked, because when you consider the "facts" about global warming logically (if possible), the fire danger should be greatly lessened by global warming, not heightened.

According to the Environmental Defense Fund, the temperature is rising, glaciers are melting, the ocean is rising, there is increased flooding due to more rain and increased drought due to lack of rain. (They claim other things too, but I am just focusing on these for now.) Everything in that "made sense," until they said there was increased drought.

Assuming the temperature is rising, the glaciers would in turn melt because ice melts the warmer it gets. That makes sense. If the ice is melting, the oceans would naturally have a higher water level, because icebergs are not totally under water (although I may not agree with this 100%, because of the science of how ice melts, floats, etc...another long blog for another time). If the temperature is getting warmer, more water would be evaporating, because water naturally evaporates faster at warmer temperatures. This would cause more rain, which continues to make sense. However, then this website claims that according to research, there are also more droughts due to climate change.

Wait...they just said that, "The 2007 IPCC report concludes that intense rain events have increased in frequency during the last 50 years and that human-induced global warming has been a factor." Then in the next paragraph they turn around and say, "There have also been increased periods of drought... According to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the percentage of Earth's surface suffering drought has more than doubled since the 1970s. In Africa alone, the IPCC projects that between 75 and 250 million people will be exposed to increased water stress due to climate change." So which is it then? Is it going to be a drought, or is it going to be flooding rains?

Based on their other "facts", it should be rain that everyone should get. The world should be getting more humid, and rainfall should be increasing. Unfortunately the "facts" about global warming change constantly, so you can have a single article that contradicts itself, because it states two contradicting "facts" with research to back them, about global warming. Very frustrating when you live somewhere affected by wildfires.

For years, the green activists have fought to keep the Forestry service and other agencies from logging, thinning trees, and just doing forest maintenance. Then, when huge fires happen, they want to blame it on global warming and say, "See, we told you people you were going to mess these trees up."

I know this is a hard pill to swallow, but it is time to start taking care of our forests...and I don't mean by never touching them. We need to clear trees out that need to be thinned, trim trees back, allow (responsible) logging and use our forests without abusing them.