No, this doesn't look good, does it?
500,000 ordered to flee California's 'perfect firestorm'
Howling winds and extreme drought fuelled uncontrollable wildfires across Southern California for the third day in a row Tuesday, as the blazes engulfed hundreds of homes in what one fire official called the "perfect firestorm."
About 750 homes across the state have been reduced to ashes as the relentless Santa Ana desert winds continue to fan the 16 major blazes, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told reporters Tuesday afternoon...
Gale-force Santa Ana winds, some gusting to 110 km/h, are fuelling the flames. The desert winds, which sweep through Southern California's canyons in the fall and winter, are stronger than normal and turning already parched scrubland into tinder.
"This is some of the most rapid fire spread that I've seen in my career," Capt. Don Camp with California's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection told CBC Newsworld on the telephone from San Diego.
"The winds, the low humidity and the unseasonably warm temperatures for this time of year have all created a perfect firestorm," he added.
Just a coincidence? Some people think not:
Expert: Warming Climate Fuels Mega-Fires
Every year you can count on forest fires in the West like hurricanes in the East, but recently there has 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.
No problems, though, as crazy-assed, Canadian dingbat Kate McMillan has another picture of a temperature gauge somewhere. In the idiotsphere, this is apparently what passes for a rebuttal.
9 comments:
This might be a stupid question, but -- Why does she show these gauges? It seems to be some sort of obsession.
Because every time they find a thermometer that might be affected by cars, AC vents and the like it proves conclusively that Anthropogenic Climate Change is not happening anywhere in the world.
Ten they trade high fives, curse the Algore demon and go back to scratching and poohflinging.
Pathetic, no?
What I can't quite understand is that there seem to be two deniers chools of thought, not one, but there are odd crossovers like this one.
The schools are 1)"Warming? What warming?" and 2) "OK, there's warming, but it wuzn't me." But Kate seems to be in both schools at once. So, for example, she says things like "warmer winters, wetter summers... I'm failing to see the downside in this," and then publishes these reports of badly-placed thermometers, suggesting that there isn't any warming going on at all.
And you can see this same confusion elsewhere in the denier community. Meanwhile, bikinied Inuit are splashing around in the Northwest Passage, and I'm sitting here in Ottawa in shirtsleeves at the ass-end of October. And California is burning.
There's a whole chain there, Dawg:
1) CO2 is not increasing.
2) CO2 is not increasing due to us.
3) It's not getting warmer.
4) Warming is a net positive.
5) CO2 increasing doesn't cause warming.
6) CO2 increasing is a net positive.
7) It's too expensive to do anything about it.
If you wait long enough, most deniers will go through all seven. And you may think some of these have finally been answered inarguably, but someone somewhere will go right back to (1) and (2). The goal is to sow confusion and doubt; they're not at all concerned with science or consistency.
Oi Adam.. you forgot the "Co2 is Life" crowd.
Oh and nobody worry. Most of these California types are white folks. I'm sure they'll get get the trailers that the NOLA folks didn't.
Nah, that was (6). I'm sure I left some stuff out, though...
Adam--you left out some stuff, but here's La Kate herself, to the rescue:
Update - Commentor Raphael Alexander; "You can't on the one hand say it isn't happening, and on the other say 'but if it is... x'."
Yes we can - because we're smart enough to understand that no matter whether it's happening or whether it's not, no matter whether we're causing it or whether we're not - that the only folly more profound than the notion that mankind can "change the weather", is the folly that argues that we can change it back.
Jeebus. I may have to think that "Intelligence on the Right" thing. On the other hand, it takes skill to keep all of those mental balls in the air.
That's "re-think that "Intelligence on the Right' thing."
always good for a laugh....but sometimes I do silently worry about the fate of our society when I remember that these are the type of people who are breeding like rabbits...
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