The Age Of Mega-Fires
Expert: Warming Climate Fueling Mega-Fires
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The Age Of Mega-Fires
Global warming is increasing the intensity and number of forest fires across the American West, according to one of the world's leading fire ecologists. Scott Pelley reports.
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Members of a U.S. Forest Service hot shot crew monitor a back burn this past August along Warm Springs Creek west of Ketchum, Idaho. The burn was started to remove potential fuels from the Castle Rock Fire, which is more than 15,000 acres in size. (AP Photo/Ashley Smith, Times-News)
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Photo essays, the worst U.S. fires, facts on fire science and health issues.
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Global Warming
The greenhouse effect, a look at the Kyoto Protocol and a history of the Earth's climate.
This past fall, wildfires ripped through Southern California, burning more than 500,000 acres of trees, destroying over 2,000 homes, and claiming nine lives. Scientists now say we should brace ourselves for more and more of these fires in the coming years, because there's been an enormous change in Western fires. In truth, we've never seen anything like them in recorded history.
It appears we're living in a new age of mega-fires -- forest infernos ten times bigger than the fires we're used to seeing.
To find out why it's happening, 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley went out on the fire line this summer to see the burning of the American West.
Last fire season was the worst in recorded history. This year was a close second, with nearly nine million acres burned. The men and women facing the flames are elite federal firefighters called "Hotshots."
Nationwide there are 92 hotshot crews of 20 members each. 60 Minutes found a group of New Mexico hotshots in the Salmon River Mountains of Idaho. They had set up camp in a burned-out patch of forest with fire raging all around. They were hitting the day, exhausted, halfway through a 14-day shift.
Leaving camp to scout out the situation, the firefighters anticipated a mess and they found it: the valley was engulfed in smoke. The flames blew through the firebreak lines they dug the day before.
"We were trying to turn the corner yesterday, and that's when it kind of blew out. I think we got more ground over here that's been taken. Any questions?" a firefighter said.
No question, this day the fire won. It surged across the mountain, forcing the hotshots to evacuate. All across the West, crews are playing defense, often pulling back to let acres burn, but standing firm to save communities. One stand this season came in August at Ketchum, Idaho. Forecasters said it was 99 percent certain Ketchum would be lost if nothing was done. Some 1,700 local, state, and federal firefighters came from across the nation, working around the clock from a mountainside camp.
Residents were evacuated, as 300-foot flames headed for homes.
60 Minutes joined up with Tom Boatner, who after 30 years on the fire line, was the chief of fire operations for the federal government.
"A fire of this size and this intensity in this country would have been extremely rare 15, 20 years they're commonplace these days," Boatner says.
"Ten years ago, if you had a 100,000 acre fire, you were talking about a huge fire. And if we had one or two of those a year, that was probably unusual. Now we talk about 200,000 acre fires like it's just another day at the office. It's been a huge change," he says.
Asked what the biggest fires now are, Boatner says, "We’ve had, I believe, two fires this summer that have been over 500,000 acres, half a million acres, and one of those was over 600,000 acres."
"You wouldn’t have expected to see this how recently?" Pelley asks.
"We got records going back to 1960 of the acres burned in America. So, that's 47 fire seasons. Seven of the 10 busiest fire seasons have been since 1999," Boatner says.
"You know what? It’s hotter than hell right here," Pelley remarks.
"It's been pretty damn hot," Boatner says. "You can imagine the challenge for young men and women with hand tools like this to come up here and put out a fire like this, but there's thousands of people down there with multimillion dollar homes that are counting on them to do that."
Produced By David Gelber and Joel Bach
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


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See all 111 CommentsPosted by mike71067 at 12:19 PM
That''s funny, I thought that was the Limbogg term for it. Several times the very scientific Limbogg has stated that it is climate change. And I know how so many just love to wait until the Limbogg tells them what''s what.
So the retards start to sense that the name has changed.
Like calling a drunk an alcoholic.
It is the same problem.
Fortunately for these idiots they will never wake from their stupor.
They don''t have to admit the problem if they are too stupid to see it.
Just proves: "Ignorance is bliss."
I know the video doesn''t look very impressive, but imagine 70 of these cascading out of a C-17 and you get some idea of the punch this system packs!
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/anomalies/anomalies.html
Wake up, people!
No big loss, the only remaining forest land is in relatively small preserves. The industrialist capitalists wanted this, unchecked logging until the areas were bare, they desertified large areas and created dust bowls, as if the planet''s resources were infinite. They polluted all the lakes and rivers, now we live with shortages of drinking water.
Even now there are idiots who deny that we have had a negative impact on our environment. The rich, who profit from it I can understand somewhat, but I have no sympathy or respect for the intelligence of the middle and poorer classes who suffer most, yet still believe the advocates of the status quo.
Instead of healthy trees sequestering carbon, megafires and decay of the charred remains are releasing tree carbon in the form of greenhouse gases. That should be your lead story. NASA data demonstrates that the ghg emissions of American wildfires exceed all the emissions of all the autos in the U.S. each year. I write extensively on my blogs and give presentations about this subject and the potential of the emerging bioconversion technologies to help solve it - see http://biostock.blogspot.com/2007/09/woody-biomass-fuel-for-wildfires.html .
Our forests can''t be preserved. We need to garden our forests. "forestwmn" has it right. Thinned forests don''t burn. The problem of megafires is relegated almost entirely to public lands. The USDA Forest Service is so strapped fighting fires and environmentalist litigation (729 cases in 13 years!) they can''t deploy preventative thinning measures. They are looking to private industry to provide use for the fuelwood they thin to help increase economic and environmental sustainability of their efforts. With the decline of the forest products industry that new demand will likely come from biorefineries that conver woody biomass (understory, not trees) to cellulosic ethanol. Think of it - reducing wildfires by reducing our dependence on foreign oil!
Instead of healthy trees sequestering carbon, megafires and decay of the charred remains are releasing tree carbon in the form of greenhouse gases. That should be your lead story. NASA data demonstrates that the ghg emissions of American wildfires exceed all the emissions of all the autos in the U.S. each year. I write extensively on my blogs and give presentations about this subject and the potential of the emerging bioconversion technologies to help solve it - see http://biostock.blogspot.com/2007/09/woody-biomass-fuel-for-wildfires.html .
Our forests can''t be preserved. We need to garden our forests. "forestwmn" has it right. Thinned forests don''t burn. The problem of megafires is relegated almost entirely to public lands. The USDA Forest Service is so strapped fighting fires and environmentalist litigation (729 cases in 13 years!) they can''t deploy preventative thinning measures. They are looking to private industry to provide use for the fuelwood they thin to help increase economic and environmental sustainability of their efforts. With the decline of the forest products industry that new demand will likely come from biorefineries that conver woody biomass (understory, not trees) to cellulosic ethanol. Think of it - reducing wildfires by reducing our dependence on foreign oil!
Some parts of the country are experiencing 100yr droughts - CA and SE. Others are experiencing 100 yr rain fall....... North Texas
Global temperature has risen .7C. Not that much and probably not the cause.
Arctic ice retreat? Yes....
Sea rise? Not yet measurable.
Do we have smog and global air contamination? Absolutely and most of it comes from Chinese coal mine fires that they can not extinguish and put more into the air than all US cars.
This was supposed to be a BIG hurricane season. Didn''t happen for the second year in a row.
So, what does that tell us? The Global Warming forecasters are just as good as the weekly forecasters on the TV....... not so good.
Climate change is definitely a piece of the puzzle, but don''t fool yourselves, the federal land management agencies are as much to blame as the climate!
Climate change is definitely a piece of the puzzle, but don''t fool yourselves, the federal land management agencies are as much to blame as the climate!
Climate change is definitely a piece of the puzzle, but don''t fool yourselves, the federal land management agencies are as much to blame as the climate!
Climate change is definitely a piece of the puzzle, but don''t fool yourselves, the federal land management agencies are as much to blame as the climate!
Climate change is definitely a piece of the puzzle, but don''t fool yourselves, the federal land management agencies are as much to blame as the climate!
Climate change is definitely a piece of the puzzle, but don''t fool yourselves, the federal land management agencies are as much to blame as the climate!
Climate change is definitely a piece of the puzzle, but don''t fool yourselves, the federal land management agencies are as much to blame as the climate!
The U.S. Government had the power to force automakers and build alternative energy vehicles long ago (actually the technology was available since after world war II). BUT, the corrupt U.S. Government was hand picked to turn the other cheek by automakers and oil company Guras around the world. To completely overall the transporation industry would cost trillions (something that would not send Corporate CEOs retire super rich), and the oil companies wouldn''t be able to get there CEO rich and their Arab power grabbers happy. No your government sold you out decades ago - they got to be rich too and own a ranch out in Texas.
You are right. The best solution is to log all the forests so that they can''t burn. Brillant!
"You won''t find them on the fire line in the American West anymore," Tom Boatner says. "Cause we''ve had climate change beat into us over the last ten or fifteen years. We know what we''re seeing, and we''re dealing with a period of climate, in terms of temperature and humidity and drought that''s different than anything people have seen in our lifetimes."
I''m sure he''s just a cheese-eating liberal, right cons?
IF BOATNERS GBONER STATEMENT IS TRUE, THEN 10 YEARS AGO,UNDER CLINTON, THESE HUGE FIRES WERE RARE....
WHAT A FU KKKIING CROK O CHIT!!!! YOU SUCKERS AREN''T REALLY GONNA BELIEVE THIS HORSEDUNG DINNER BELL ARE YOU?
WHILE THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT SOME SORT OF NATURAL CLIMATE CYCLE IS HAPPENING, WHY HAS IT BECOME SUCH A BIG ISSUE SINCE BUSH SHOWED UP?
DID YOU KNOW MORE OF THOSE GAS GUZZLING SUVS WERE SOLD UNDER CLINTONS WATCH THAN ANY OTHER PRESIDENT IN HISTORY?
DOESN''T THAT MAKE HIM MORE RESPONSIBLE THAN BUSH...ACCORDING TO YOUR OWN LEFT LOGIC??
JEEEESUSS.
LOL
as long as they have bodies on the ground and
large payrolls! WE showed them how to put out
fires in 6 hours and they said "we are not interested.
The system is a slight modification of what they already have. NO municipal body cares about
the effectiveness of fire fighters--as long as the
payroll is large and supports lots of fire fighters!
Cmjens, you stick to your guns and let them heathen liberals know that us God fearing republicans don''t believe anything unless it appears unsubstantiated in a two thousand year old book. Well I need to saddle up the dinosaur for the ride to church so I will see you all later.
Wish I had a ''57 Chevy...
That''s why we who live in the forest love to laugh when we see your millionair tv ANCHORMAN wearing a thousand dollar business suit or your ANCHORWOMAN wearing a bright blue outfit that looks like it glows in the dark professing to be an expert on everything, yet all the while asking dumb questions to the "victims" in trouble...."Duh..how does it feel to have lost your home in this terrible fire...?? duh..uh...
These empty skirts have never even stepped in bear cr ap nor cleared brush or even layed in bed at night with the window open letting that pure oxygen in letting you get that good nights sleep only a mountain man could get. (after a quick bone with the ol'' lady first of course...)
Folks...wake up. Make a note to self, the next time you watch your alphabet news, count how many times the words "I THINK" or "DO YOU THINK" pop up in the conversation....it''s truly astonishing.
Nobody really knows anything for sure should be your logical deduction, if not, keep voting left...your days are numbered!!
What is great about the "climate change" scare story is that it has happened in the past in America, for example there have been extensive droughts which depopulated whole native american cities in the southwest. So it makes a great story. The idea that we ourselves are somehow responsible is very Catholic, very ominous like the slasher movies where the people who get killed are somehow bad people.
We did something wrong, we will be punished. We can have this wonderful, engaging story told to us, without the need for a God or external entity or any postulation of a spiritual world at all. "Climate change" the movie is cast as entirely based on something called science. It gives all the chills and thrills of Sunday morning preachers while still denying there is any spiritual world, still acting like capitalistic nilhism is a valid point of view.
Kkemper, you don''t have to lie to be cool. Not every fire has the capability of being put out in 6 hours. I would like to know just exactly what your title is and your affiliation with the Forest Service / BLM is. Also, I would like to know if you are aware of just how little $ these guys actually make given the risk of the job? Are you aware of the "seasonal" vs "permanant" employess. Are you familiar with the large amount of Lay Off''s at the end of Fire Season? For you to state that this is a money scandal of sorts is a large embelishment on your part and seems to be a cry for attention.
Sign me,
Wife of a WildLand Firefighter
You saw AL GONES "INCONVIENIANT TRUTH" and sucked up all the lies that were portrayed as fact with no regard to historical facts. You sucked it ALL UP....LIKE A BELUSHI HAIRBALL...and you feel good inside....isn''t that ALL that matters to you folks??
Isn''t that what it means to be a liberal is these days?? If it feels good, just do it?? Just believe it?? Just say yes?? Just put the condom on the cucumber?? Just give the little girl BIRTH CONTROL PILLS?? ...YAY!! SALLY''S ON THE PILL!!! AFTER SCHOOL, WHEN SHE''S FINISHED PLAYING WITH HER DOLLS, WE CAN HAVE SOME REAL FUN NOW!!
YOU LIBS:
JUST
DONT
GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YEAH
LOL
But the repugs keep on denying the obvious. I have to wonder, how could they be that stu/pid? Bush tells them to doubt global warming, so they do! Apparently there isn''t a single one of them who can think for himself.
The GOP: ********* Obnoxious Peabrains!!!
4. Population
It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.
The desertification of the West and SE has begun, due to climate change. When several-century old Ponderosa''s start dying by fire, the times have changed. Get on board and realize it ''could'' be a big deal, cuz even if American''s decide to do something about it (which probably would NOT require much sacrifice), convincing the future''s REAL polluters (Chinese, Latin, Indian) is going to be VERY difficult.
As someone who has backpacked extensively in the Sierra Nevada, I can tell you the high country has changed (its gotten ALOT drier). This is NOT natural climate warming (10,000 yr wavelength). This is global warming (200 yr wavelength).
LAY OFF THE HUSTLERS AND 12 PACKS!!
LOL
Interesting! That''s exactly what we think about you mo/rons who, when faced with the fact that the world is heating up and the fact that human activity significantly contributes to that temperature rise, coupled with the fact that even a few degree average increase in temperature will cause massive disruption in the world, just keep their heads buried in the sand and hope it will all just "go away" if we do nothing about it.
The level of stu/pidity that is required to be a practicing Bushite is astounding!
(BTW, ONE single exclammation point is usually sufficient. Perhaps you can use 2 or 3 if you REALLY want to be enthusiastic. But, using 22 just makes you appear to be spastic.)
That is just more evidence of global warming. It reinforces the central point of the story, rather than negating it. So yes, he should have included that info in this story.
Anyway, on the flip side of that. I was reading a Times article about the global warming actually melting a hole so ships could make a shipping lane across the artic Atlantic to the Pacific. Now, I am curious, if that is where the gulf stream cools and the down current spot for the ocean currents that determine our weather, what happens when the Gulfs water can flow through to the Pacific? They didn''t touch on that scenario for my information.
when SharmCedar says past droughts "depopulated whole native american cities in the southwest" he''s talking about the warming associated with the end of last ice age and the retreat of the glaciers. We already know that, TODAY, the SW is largely a desert, incapable of supported agrarian subsistence populations in large numbers. Too bad the Anasazi didn''t know it when it was happening.
What does this have to do with Global Warming?... nothing, which SharmCedar already knows. We''re talking about places as far north as Idaho becoming desertified due to CO2. That''s a different problem, with a different solution.
HOW NICE OF YOU to let us know that 10 thousand years ago, your sweet sierra mountains were bristling with dew....C''mon, chief...were you there??? I guess if your real name was a little more biblical I could believe you, but seriously....
Those who put too much faith in science leave no room for faith in "the man" (GOD for dognut libs).
You should have a healthy balance of BOTH to allow your brain to grow...INTERESTING CONCEPT, EH CHIEF?
"SCIENCE" can''t cure the common cold...but they can tell you the size of the nipples on a bronto babeasouras 10 million years ago?
Helloooooooooo....just till (relatively)recently the "scientists" discovered asbestos causes cancer....uh oh...they let billions get exposed in the mean time...
How many years you been given your child cold medicine??? Uh oh....maybe you shouldn''t...
My point is, don''t believe everything you hear, chief, next thing you know the "scientists" will find something wrong with VIAGRA!!!
LOL
Maybe you haven''t been paying attention. One of the political parties REQUIRES you to believe that global warming is a "myth", because it might cut into those humongous oil company profits if we did anything to fix it. So, rather than being an issue that is discussed rationally, by scientists, it becomes a chance for the rabid Bushies to spout more of their lies.
Despite the political overtones, scientists HAVE been discussing this matter rationally for many years. The overwhelming consensus is that global warming is real, not just something made up by Al Gore. A very small number of well-paid pseudo-scientists disagree. If you''re a member of the Repugnant party, you are required to ignore the consensus, and believe the radical nut jobs who deny global warming.
Everything''s political to a political tool.
Everything''s religious to a believer.
Reality be dammed!
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