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As Western US fires get ever bigger, experts look for answers
https://www.voanews.com/a/as-western-us-fires-get-ever-bigger-experts-look-for-answers/7715803.htmlAs Western US fires get ever bigger, experts look for answers
July 28, 2024 0:13 AM
By Associated Press
Flames consume a vehicle as the Park Fire burns in Tehama County, Calif., on July 26, 2024.
Decades of snuffing out fires at the first sign of smoke combined with climate change have laid the groundwork for a massive wildfire in northern California and scores of smaller ones across the western U.S. and Canada, experts say.
These fires are moving faster and are harder to fight than those in the past. The only way to stop future wildfires from becoming so ferocious is to use smaller controlled fires, as indigenous people did for centuries, experts say. But they acknowledge that change won't be easy.
[...]
Marlon said there aren't necessarily more wildfires now, but they are larger and more severe because of the warming atmosphere. "The big message is that seeing extreme wildfires is just part of a series of unnatural disasters that we are going to continue seeing because of climate change," she said.
Ten of California's 20 largest fires occurred in the last five years, said Benjamin Hatchett, a fire meteorologist with the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere with Colorado State University, in Fort Collins.
[...]
July 28, 2024 0:13 AM
By Associated Press
Flames consume a vehicle as the Park Fire burns in Tehama County, Calif., on July 26, 2024.
Decades of snuffing out fires at the first sign of smoke combined with climate change have laid the groundwork for a massive wildfire in northern California and scores of smaller ones across the western U.S. and Canada, experts say.
These fires are moving faster and are harder to fight than those in the past. The only way to stop future wildfires from becoming so ferocious is to use smaller controlled fires, as indigenous people did for centuries, experts say. But they acknowledge that change won't be easy.
[...]
Marlon said there aren't necessarily more wildfires now, but they are larger and more severe because of the warming atmosphere. "The big message is that seeing extreme wildfires is just part of a series of unnatural disasters that we are going to continue seeing because of climate change," she said.
Ten of California's 20 largest fires occurred in the last five years, said Benjamin Hatchett, a fire meteorologist with the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere with Colorado State University, in Fort Collins.
[...]