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Firefighters Believe In Global Warming, So Why Doesn't Bush?
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This post, written by GottaLaff, originally appeared on Cliff Schecter's Brave New Films Blog
Our Make-Believer in Chief loves firefighters. Remember? Right after 9/11, do you recall how he said he "could hear" them?
Well, well, well, can you hear them now, W? Because last night on 60 Minutes they were loud and clear. And you know what they were saying?
Tom Boatner, who after 30 years on the fire line, is now the chief of fire operations for the federal government, said this:
"We got records going back to 1960 of the acres burned in America. So, that's 47 fire seasons. Seven of the 10 busiest fire seasons have been since 1999."Why would that be? Too many matches? Nah. Squirrels and chipmunks becoming arsonists? Absurd! Too much hot air emanating from D.C.? Maybe.
"As the spring is arriving earlier because of warming conditions, the snow on these high mountain areas is melting and running off. So the logs and the branches and the tree needles all can dry out more quickly and have a longer time period to be dry. And so there's a longer time period and opportunity for fires to start. [...] The spring comes earlier, so the fire season is just longer. [...] The fire season in the last 15 years or so has increased more than two months over the whole Western U.S. So actually 78 days of average longer fire season in the last 15 years compared to the previous 15 or 20 years."And what would be the reason for that phenomenon?
Swetnam says that climate change -- global warming -- has increased temperatures in the West about one degree and that has caused four times more fires. Swetnam and his colleagues published those findings in the journal "Science," and the world's leading researchers on climate change have endorsed their conclusions.No way! One teensy weensy degree can do all that? But W and his buds don't believe in science. Not even one degree of it!
"You know, there are a lot of people who don't believe in climate change," [60 Minutes correspondent Scott] Pelley remarks.
"You won't find them on the fire line in the American West anymore," [firefighter] Tom Boatner says. "'Cause we've had climate change beat into us over the last ten or fifteen years. We know what we're seeing, and we're dealing with a period of climate, in terms of temperature and humidity and drought that's different than anything people have seen in our lifetimes."Maybe he can convince W and his pals to have a little faith in his firefighting heroes. And W, isn't that what you keeps you going? Faith?
Tagged as: bush, environment, global warming, firefighters
GottaLaff is a regular blogger for Cliff Schecter's Blog
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