Saturday, June 30, 2012

US wildfires are what global warming really looks like, scientists warn

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."
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2 comments:

  1. I believe global warming is a real threat.

    My sense about this particular article, however, is that it's a bit too early to tell whether the crazy weather we're having is the result of man-made factors or part of the natural fluctuations in climate.

    The scientists are right: it COULD be a window into what global warming looks like. It could also be due entirely to natural processes.

    It's going to take another decade or two of weather like the kind we've had for several years to convince me the effect is man-made.

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  2. You won't get two more decades of what we've been having. You'll get two decades of much, much worse weather at this point no matter what we do.

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