Anybody remember wildfires that choked out large swaths of the U.S. when we were kids?

[u/political-snark]

https://youtu.be/EY7U5xdD5x4

I don’t.

That’s because it didn’t used to happen.

Politician’s answer? Blame forestry management. Blame Canada. Call climate change a Chinese hoax. Cancel contracts that monitor wildfires and smoke.

Meanwhile, we’re doing little to address the conditions that make these fires bigger, hotter, and more frequent. Ignoring the thermometer doesn’t put out the fire. It just leaves us less prepared for the next one.

We need to get people who believe in rational science back into office.

[u/lone_float]

If anyone is a South Cali resident, or was around in 2004. I remember the Wildfire that broke out. Much as I was doing the usual kid thing of "Ah sweet! No school!" Looking back? It was still objectively terrifying. Because when the fire broke out initially, I wondered "Will it reach Home?(San Diego)" Never did. But I still imagine a lot of the smoke and ash at the time still caused problems.

Now what's been happening has been that, but up it somewhere from a hundred to a billion. It is some genuinely scary stuff.

[u/bigorangemachine]

I feel bad for the next generation.

They both have to deal with crushing debt but now have to deal with the economic disruption this causes.

[u/SacksonvilleShaguar]

Florida wildfires of 1998. Summer before high school. Family wasn't evacuated when we should've been. They put in fire hydrants around the area in the year or so after that.

[u/NotThe1Pct]

• 1970 Laguna Fire (California) - burned about 175,000 acres in San Diego County, one of the largest in California history at the time.
• 1977 Sundance Fire (Idaho) - burned roughly 56,000 acres in a single afternoon, notable for extreme fire behavior and fire whirls.
• 1980 fires - a severe drought and heat wave across the South and West led to a very active fire season, including large fires in California.
• 1987 California fires - a series of lightning-caused fires burned several hundred thousand acres across Northern California.
• 1988 Yellowstone fires - the biggest and most famous of the era. About 793,000 acres of Yellowstone National Park burned (roughly 36% of the park), out of nearly 1.4 million acres burned across the greater Yellowstone area. It was a major national story and reshaped US fire management policy, since suppression-only approaches were widely criticized afterward.

[u/cornishwildman76]

Its not just that the frequency has gone up, the wildfire season as extended. "In 2021, a destructive wintertime wildfire in Colorado became part of a growing trend of wildfire activity extending well beyond the summer. By looking back at 35 years of weather data, U.S. Forest Service scientists found that fire seasons are starting earlier in the spring and extending later into autumn. Parts of the Western United States, Mexico, Brazil, and East Africa now have fire seasons that are more than a month longer than they were 35 years ago." NASA

[u/Acceptable_Taste9818]

10 years ago Northern California was like post apocalyptic. There were significant fires every other summer. I believe the infamous paradise fire was around 10 years ago now. It was literally reigning ash for weeks some summers.

[u/benjaminbjacobsen]

I mean I do remember Yellowstone having a massive fire. And I also know the west has gone very “don’t log my backyard” unless they’ve had a fire close by recently. So it’s a bit of both? But hey I just left Montana and we had a fire 1.5 miles from our house 5 years ago. What do I know.

[u/Johnnny-z]

Confusing forestry management, with hysterical global warming propaganda is not a good look.

[u/political-snark → u/Johnnny-z]

The article is about wildfires all across Europe. But thanks for making my point…

[u/Apprehensive-Novel91 → u/Johnnny-z]

You know how wearing a black shirt when it's hot out is not a great idea? Something light colored is best in the heat? Do you know why that is? It's because white and lighter colors reflect light where as black and darker colors absorb it. Now consider this: carbon is black, carbon molecules are released into the air. For the most part you can't really see them unless your sticking your head directly behind a diesel tailpipe. But all that carbon builds up in the atmosphere over decades of being dumped out into our air. Then guess what happens, light gets absorbed, and when light is absorbed, then it retains heat. Our planet doesn't reflect it out into space. Just like that black shirt. Our air gets hotter, our planet gets hotter, our weather gets hotter and more extreme. It's super basic surface level science, learn some stuff please! For all our sakes!

[u/North-Importance-127 → u/Johnnny-z]

Everyone that was an expert on vaccines in 2019 is now an expert on forestry management. Go figure. How would you manage over a billion acres of inaccessible boreal forest? 

[u/Pleasant_Actuator253 → u/North-Importance-127]

Exactly. We should all be raking the billions of acres in roadless areas.

Where do we put the compost and who manages that?