So far this year, there have been 4.6 million acres that have burned across the western USA. Today, there is even smoke high in the sky over the east coast which was brought there from California by the jet stream. Politicians like California governor Newsom have been screaming that this is proof positive that global warming is upon us. The media keeps screaming that these are record fires. Nothing like fires of this magnitude has been seen ever before.
So is this all true? Are we in the midst of the "end times" of climate change? Hardly. Let's look at a little history.
1. Throughout the last few thousand years, there have been periodic fires that cleared western forests and grasslands as well. This was nature's mechanism for clearing debris from the forest. There are even types of trees in these forests whose seeds only germinate after being exposed to the heat of a fire. In other words, fires were so common that some plants adapted so that their seeds would be the first to regrow in the affected areas. The fires were started by lighting strikes, the same cause which has ignited most of the recent fires out west.
2. Throughout all but the most recent history, there was little humans could do to stop the fires. They were part of nature and were just too big to stop. Mostly, people kept out of living in areas prone to blazes.
3. In 1930, just 90 years ago, the acreage that burned in the western USA totaled 50 million acreas. That's an area slightly larger than the state of New York. During the following 20 years, the level of fires declined but it never fell below ten million acres per year. To put that in context, every year between 1930 and 1950 saw at least twice as many acres burned out west as has happened this year in what the media calls "record" fires. These are all official government statistics.
4. By 1950, the US forestry service had adopted a practice of controlled burns. The service actually started fires in certain areas so that there would be breaks in the forest when natural fires began. This was designed to prevent massive out-of-control fires from burning entire regions. There was a checkerboard pattern often used in these controlled burns.
5. The practice of controlled burns took the level of fires down in a major way. But then about 25 years ago, the environmentalists began to complain that humans should not interfere with the natural processes of the forest. We shouldn't clear brush that provided homes for animals but which is also the kindling for major fires. We shouldn't burn any of the forest in controlled burns because of the damage this did to wildlife. Not surprisingly, the politicians -- eager to virtue signal how strongly environmental they were -- adopted this view. To a great extent, controlled burns and brush clearing became a thing of the past.
6. After 25 years, the conditions that led to big fires have returned to the West. The problem now, however, is that after so many years of few fires, people have moved into these regions and are right in the way of the flames.
What we are seeing out west is not record fires. It is a return to the norm that existed for thousands of years prior to steps taken by people to control the fires. It is the result of a misguided environmental policy that believes that "natural" is always better than human intervention. It isn't, and now we are paying the price. And as for proof of global warming, remember that the fires 90 years ago, long before global warming was even an idea, were ten times worse than this year. So much for the "proof".
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