USA Today (September 8)
“Intense heat, parched conditions and high winds fueled record-shattering wildfires and strained the electrical grid across much of California on Monday…. California has been struggling with a record-breaking fire season this year – more than 2 million acres have been torched. The days ahead look equally grim.”
Tags: California, Electrical grid, Grim, Heat, Parched, Record, Strained, Struggling, Torched, Wildfires, Winds
The Economist (August 3)
“Still a livelihood for 1.5bn people, forests maintain local and regional ecosystems and, for the other 6.2bn, provide a—fragile and creaking—buffer against climate change. Now droughts, wildfires and other human-induced changes are compounding the damage from chainsaws. In the tropics, which contain half of the world’s forest biomass, tree-cover loss has accelerated by two-thirds since 2015; if it were a country, the shrinkage would make the tropical rainforest the world’s third-biggest carbon-dioxide emitter, after China and America.”
Tags: Buffer, Chainsaws, China, Climate change, CO2, Damage, Droughts, Ecosystems, Forests, Livelihood, Tropical rainforest, U.S., Wildfires
LA Times (December 6)
“What should make Southern California fearful is that climate change could mean a future of more frequent and more intense wildfires. Today’s fires will end, and what we do afterward—assessing how to better prepare, and how and whether to rebuild—will influence the damage from the fires next time.”
Tags: Climate change, Damage, Fearful, Prepare, Rebuild, Southern California, Wildfires
San Francisco Chronicle (October 9)
“California’s fire season took an apocalyptic turn for too many Sunday as fierce winds and hot, dry air fanned more than a dozen Wine Country fires…. At least 1,500 structures and 10 lives were lost, scores were injured and tens of thousands evacuated, and smoke settled thickly over the Bay Area and beyond.” While containment remains the most urgent matter, “the latest catastrophic wildfires are also a policy problem that should motivate redoubled prevention and mitigation measures.”
Tags: Apocalyptic, California, Catastrophic, Evacuated, Fire, Mitigation, Prevention, Smoke, Wildfires, Winds, Wine Country
Dallas Morning News (September 21)
There’s “little solace amid the pileup of hurricane and earthquake devastation, not to mention the record-setting wildfires…. But the silver lining in this chaos is that time and time again, nature’s wrath is answered by steely human resolve…. Those of us lucky enough to be spared from this summer of destruction can do more than marvel at the responses of courage and resolve. Let us each lend a hand in whatever way we best can.”
Tags: Chaos, Courage, Destruction, Devastation, Earthquake, Human resolve, Hurricane, Nature, Pileup, Silver lining, Solace, Wildfires, Wrath
Bloomberg (August 18)
“Last month wasn’t just the hottest July on record for the surface of earth. It continued the longest-ever streak of record-breaking months—15.” The data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) came at an alarming time. “As more than 100,000 Americans flee destructive wildfires in California and floods in Louisiana, earth sends yet another reminder that the worst is yet to come: a new record for planet-wide heat.”
