Western Wildfires and Global Warming
The wide-open spaces of the West are rapidly changing from carbon filters to carbon emitters.
Western forests historically have filtered between 20- to 40% of the amount of carbon dioxide produced in the United States. In the 1980s, though, the frequency and severity of fires in the West started to climb precipitously. While fire is a natural and naturally-healthy part of the West, these fires are catastrophically more frequent and hotter than anything nature has previously produced.
Some scientists claim this hyperactive fire cycle is a product of global warming. Others note vegetative causes, like unnaturally high fuel loads (from overly-aggressive fire prevention and proliferation of highly-flammable invasive species). Regardless whether the fires are a product of global warming, a causal contributor to global warming, both (in a feedback loop that might occur during warming trends), or neither – it is a fact that increased western fires currently are pumping tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Anyone serious about reducing carbon emissions should take a good look at the health of the West’s wide-open spaces, to see if these unnatural fires can be reduced and a more natural fire cycle reintroduced.
Some context: All gasoline-powered cars in Utah produced 9.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2005 (latest data I have). In June/July of this year, wildfires in Utah produced 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. That I recall, these were mostly grass fires. I make the distinction, because timber fires produce more than 10 times the amount of carbon emissions per acre than grass fires.
Western forests historically have filtered between 20- to 40% of the amount of carbon dioxide produced in the United States. In the 1980s, though, the frequency and severity of fires in the West started to climb precipitously. While fire is a natural and naturally-healthy part of the West, these fires are catastrophically more frequent and hotter than anything nature has previously produced.
Some scientists claim this hyperactive fire cycle is a product of global warming. Others note vegetative causes, like unnaturally high fuel loads (from overly-aggressive fire prevention and proliferation of highly-flammable invasive species). Regardless whether the fires are a product of global warming, a causal contributor to global warming, both (in a feedback loop that might occur during warming trends), or neither – it is a fact that increased western fires currently are pumping tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Anyone serious about reducing carbon emissions should take a good look at the health of the West’s wide-open spaces, to see if these unnatural fires can be reduced and a more natural fire cycle reintroduced.
Some context: All gasoline-powered cars in Utah produced 9.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2005 (latest data I have). In June/July of this year, wildfires in Utah produced 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. That I recall, these were mostly grass fires. I make the distinction, because timber fires produce more than 10 times the amount of carbon emissions per acre than grass fires.
posted by steve u. at 8/01/2007
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3 Comments:
It's encouraging to see a Republican talk about Global Warming without trying to dismiss it as a left-wing myth.
I don't think Republicans dismiss Global Warming as a myth. I think they dismiss the caused-by-humans-only-Global Warming as a left-wing myth. There is no doubt the globe is warming.
Justin,
Bnorm is right. What is a left-wing myth is "Man Made Global Warming." What is also a left-wing myth is that republicans dismiss any kind of global warming.
Thanks, Steve, for the interesting insights into this issue. I was in the eastern United States for half of July, and if they would share their extra water with us, we could grow some gigantic forests and help bring things back into balance!
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