America is on Fire Because of the Climate Crisis

Posted on July 6, 2012 at 11:41 am by Bob Cesca

Stating the obvious, but with the utmost importance:

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano this week linked climate change with the wildfires hitting Colorado. Napolitano said ‘there’s a pattern here’ as she noted the summer wildfires as well as the East Coast heat wave and the high-velocity winds that whipped through the mid-Atlantic late last week.

Couple that with record temperatures across the continent and the fact that Washington, DC was without power for days due to a freakish inland hurricane. Yeah, we’re in it. The Climate Crisis is on.

Print Friendly
This entry was posted in Environment and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • CorpuscleSchism
  • http://drangedinaz.wordpress.com/ IrishGrrrl

    I think if we look at the last couple of years, we’ve been ramping up to this point. Arizona has always suffered from wildfires but it is on a whole other level now. The amount and ferocity of the ones in the last few years has been mind boggling. The ongoing drought here (yes, there is such a thing as drought in a desert) is the primary cause of the recent bear attacks (Colbert Report worthy news) at camp grounds. The bears are so hungry that they are attacking sleeping campers in their tents, even campers that took all the bear precautions you are supposed to take. In the Phoenix area, we are seeing more coyotes coming right into town and cougars coming down into back yards to steal pets and stray animals. What’s crazy is, I’m not hearing anyone in authority telling people to conserve water. People are using it like there’s no drought. They do have road signs up indicating the fire hazard, particularly on the major highways. But that doesn’t stop the libtard idiots in this state. Nosiree, they insist they have the freedom to throw their lit cancer sticks out of their car window anywhere and anytime they damn well please. No one here is going to even pay attention until a massive wildfire threatens one of the major cities and then maybe not even then, unless it is Phoenix, Snottsdale or Fountains Hills.

    • agrazingmoose

      I am from upstate NY along the Canadian border and my family keeps pretty meticulous temperature records.

      Around here it has been getting steadily warmer for 100 years.

  • http://twitter.com/Zirgar Zirgar

    It boggles my ass how something as easily quantifiable as temperature, is being contested by these people. GLOBAL TEMPERATURE INCREASE IS AN OBJECTIVE FACT. That is unassailable. But these clowns want to stick their collective head in the sand and pretend nothing is happening, all the while sea levels are rising and coastal areas are submerging, crazy inland hurricanes are tearing things up, freak snowstorms are occurring, out of control wildfires due the ground being so parched that if you aren’t careful a fart spark might send your town up in flames—what is wrong with these people?

    • ninjaf

      They don’t necessarily deny that temps are increasing. They just deny that it is caused by anything that man has done.

      • http://twitter.com/Zirgar Zirgar

        But their actions and rhetoric show a very clear disregard for the effects of global warming, whether they consider it a human-made problem or not, and that indicates they really don’t believe it one way or the other. That or they’re just being disingenuous. When these people say anything about it at all, they mock “global warming” or “climate change.” I hardly ever hear them use the terms “human-caused global warming” or “human-caused climate change” — some do but most don’t. I think if they believe they have to buy into the premise, then they have to follow suit with the conclusions, and that they can’t abide, so they don’t bother.

        • Brutlyhonest

          Straight from (one of) the wingnut(s) down the street: the data is falsified by hack scientists who just want more government grants. “All you have to do is follow the money.”

          I shit you not. I asked if he really believes that corporations would have to be spending the gobs of cash they are to combat the science “faked” through a few hundred thousand dollars in grants. He does. There is no cure. (As a funny (not haha) aside, this hater of big government is a retired federal civilian.) I have to get out of this shithole before I go completely insane.

          • ninjaf

            Don’t forget about the Evangelicals who believe God is creating and controlling the climate. That is why they don’t believe global warming is caused by man, no matter what the science says. You can’t have a rational discussion of the facts and data when they use their faith as evidence.

          • http://drangedinaz.wordpress.com/ IrishGrrrl

            Brutly, yep that’s exactly what I hear as well. It’s all that grant money that the scientists are desperate for. I usually counter with “do you know how hard it would be to conduct a conspiracy between thousands of scientists all over the world? To get them to all work together? That alone isn’t possible.”

      • muselet

        Climate-change deniers as a group go through a predictable cycle:

        1) Global warming isn’t real and anyone who believes otherwise is part of the conspiracy.

        2) Global warming is real, but humans have nothing to do with it and anyone who believes otherwise is part of the conspiracy.

        3) Global warming is real, humans may have something to do with it, but it’s too expensive to do anything about it and anyone who believes otherwise is part of the conspiracy.

        4) Global warming is real, humans may have something to do with it, it’s not too expensive to do anything about it, but it’s too late to do anything about it and anyone who believes otherwise is part of the conspiracy.

        5) Global warming is real, humans may have something to do with it, it’s not too expensive to do anything about it, it’s not too late to do anything about it, but the effects aren’t as bad as claimed and anyone who believes otherwise is part of the conspiracy.

        6) Return to 1.

        From what I can tell, the deniers are currently making the transition from number 2 to number 3, but they should hit number 4 within a couple of months.

        Individual climate-change deniers can effortlessly go through this cycle over the course of a single conversation. It’s what makes arguing with them so frustrating.

        –alopecia

    • http://drangedinaz.wordpress.com/ IrishGrrrl

      “fart spark” LMFAO! We had better start delivering Depends or some other “fart guard” to AZ politicians because they are absolutely brimming over with gas.

  • i_a_c

    I’m sorry for doing this, but I’m a meteorology student and I have to gripe about the use of the phrase “inland hurricane.” The line of storms that hit DC was a derecho, a long-lived line of thunderstorms with severe straight-line winds. They’re uncommon but can happen a couple times per year in some part of the country or another.

    It has nothing to do with hurricanes whatsoever other than a comparable wind speed.

    We now return you to your regularly scheduled outrage.

    • Brutlyhonest

      I have noticed that most “news” reports on this have regressed to calling it a line of storms. I wonder if it’s the same reason they started calling a haboob a dust storm? You know, real ‘merkins don’t use ferin words.

      • i_a_c

        Derecho is just not a term most folks have heard of. Calling it a “line of storms” is accurate but not the most precise term that can be used. I’ve heard a couple reports explain what a derecho is, so good for those folks.

        • Brutlyhonest

          I hadn’t heard it either until a couple of days ago and they actually explained what it was at the time of use.

          I was just taking another opportunity to lament the dumbing down of people in this Country.

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kitty-Smith/100000047475312 Kitty Smith

      I was wondering what a “derecho” was. Looks like I’m one of today’s 10000.

      • http://drangedinaz.wordpress.com/ IrishGrrrl

        BTW, to all non-Spanish speakers, derecho means “right”, as in your right hand