US Wildfires are a Taste of Things to Come

**InnocentNewborn** · 02-07-2012, 07:02 PM

Scorching heat, high winds and bone-dry conditions are fueling catastrophic wildfires in the US west that offer a preview of the kind of disasters that human-caused climate change could bring, a trio of scientists said on Thursday.

"What we're seeing is a window into what global warming really looks like," said Princeton University's Michael Oppenheimer, a lead author for the UN's climate science panel. "It looks like heat, it looks like fires, it looks like this kind of environmental disaster … This provides vivid images of what we can expect to see more of in the future."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...ing-scientists

**Tim the plumber** · 03-07-2012, 09:33 AM

So have we never had such wild fires before?

**InnocentNewborn** · 04-07-2012, 04:07 PM

Originally Posted by Tim the plumber

So have we never had such wild fires before?

I expected you to comment that fires are nice and cosy so we should all enjoy them.

**Besoeker** · 04-07-2012, 08:51 PM

Originally Posted by Tim the plumber

So have we never had such wild fires before?

Seems that the temperatures are breaking quite a few records. Mrs B found this:

(CNN) -- People in a huge swath of the United States are being urged to seek out shelters as needed on Sunday as a historic heat wave continues to bring sizzing temperatures -- including to some who have lost power. Extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States. Nineteen states were under excessive heat warnings or heat advisories on Sunday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit were expected in much of the Southeast. Over the past week, nearly 1600 high temperatures have been broken -- including 140 all-time highs, according to the National Climatic Data Center. Statistics for Saturday, when more records were broken, were not yet available. Meanwhile, a derecho -- or massive storm -- that moved across the Ohio Valley to the Northeast on Friday left 12 people dead and millions without power. Many remained without power on Sunday.

**paralreg** · 04-07-2012, 10:48 PM

I know I am going to get called an odd ball, but is it possible that the earth is giving the polluters and ravagers a bit of a kicking? We know where to find gold, oil, coal, sand, granite, etc, everything we want is here and this planet has nurtured many and various lifeforms on its surface for I don't know how many millions of years but has anyone ever seriously considered the the planet may well be a living entity in its own right that has started to fight for its survival?
As an aside, as we fling evermore of this planet into space the planet must get lighter that's common sense and we all know that in most areas nature operates within very narrow margins between survival and death, a slight change here or no change there and a disaster is upon us, so has or could even this slight "%wise" lightening when allied to all our other ecological bollix ups be the planetary turning point? Can such weight loss affect orbit or rotation rates? I don't know does anyone?

**Tim the plumber** · 05-07-2012, 08:52 AM

Can such weight loss affect orbit or rotation rates? I don't know does anyone?

What weight loss? There is no loss of mass from the planet. The tiny moving of material around we have done has had an equally tiny effect. You are desperatley dredging for a dooms-day scenario.

**paralreg** · 05-07-2012, 09:38 AM

Originally Posted by Tim the plumber

What weight loss? There is no loss of mass from the planet. The tiny moving of material around we have done has had an equally tiny effect. You are desperatley dredging for a dooms-day scenario.

I'm not looking for anything it is simply that we have flung what now must be several thousand tons of the Earth in one form of another into space satellites, space stations and all the long range objects like voyager etc. OK much will I know crash back to earth but there is always the interval until it does, indeed many later orbiters are so far out to enable a longer stable orbit that they may never return.
My views on life and "death" prohibits me from having a doomsday mentality simply what is ,is, and what will be will be, which is as it should be.