Is climate change worsening California fires, or is poor forest management to blame? Yes
In recent years, nearly 150 million trees died around the state as their roots delved fruitlessly for water and a devastating bark beetle infestation took hold. Both the drought and the insect spread that came with it were exacerbated by changing climate conditions linked to humans burning fossil fuels, scientists concluded. Now those trees, like so much else in the American West, are burning as California contends with a reckoning more than 100 years in the making.
Related articles:
- Associated Press: Fires raise fight over climate change before Trump’s visit
- San Francisco Chronicle: ‘This is a climate damn emergency,’ California’s Gavin Newsom says
- The Press Democrat: Heat, wildfires and red skies: The week climate change seized the national spotlight
- Voice of America: Climate change making western wildfires in US worse
- E&E News: Calif., a leader on climate, agonizes over not acting faster
- E&E News: Wildfires force Biden and Trump to reckon with climate
- Los Angeles Times: 150 million dead trees could fuel unprecedented firestorms in the Sierra Nevada
- Tahoe Daily Tribune: Tree mortality on decline, but drought conditions continue
- Tahoe Daily Tribune: Opinion: Climate change front and center at Tahoe