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Oklahoma Wildfires and Climate Change

watsup

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In August of 2016, the EPA predicted an increase in thr frequency, severity, and extent of wildfires in Oklahoma.



Eight-and-a-half years later, here is what happened:

“There were over 130 fires throughout 44 counties.

According to Gov. Kevin Stitt, about 170,000 acres have burned across Oklahoma, and the Oklahoma Forestry Service is currently working to find the exact numbers.

Stitt said he received a report Friday night that about 293 homes and structures were destroyed.”


Expect more of these types of events due to ongoing and increasing climate change, but Trump has now declared that neither the EPA nor the weather service nor any other federal agency can warn people about the ongoing and future negative events due to climate change. That doesn’t mean, of course, that they will not continue and get even worse.
 
The attitude we are seeing from the Trump admin towards climate change etc is a true ostrich, head buried in the sand approach. If we can't see it coming, it won't happen. It also reminds of Trump, during the early days of covid, refusing to let covid affected cruise ships land in the US for medical help because then the covid cases would be counted in "his numbers" and make them look bad. It is absolutely tragic that the country is so dumb that we allow this to happen.
 

Trump is leading the nation and the world into destruction.
 
And not a peep from the right but if this was happening say in California, the right would be up in arms blaming the democrats for not raking the forest floors and other such idiotic bullshit from the mindless who only repeat what their right wing outlets tell them what to be pissed about on any given day.
 
Don't look up.
Really good movie and that is the overall message, be an ostrich, less COVID testing means less COVID, right? Idiots.
 
One thing that really hampers Oklahoma firefighting is the proliferation of cedar trees. While they are native to Oklahoma, they have exploded in density. Part of this is due to the number of farm ponds and other man made water retention efforts. These aquatic refuges allowed smaller birds that feed on cedar to range further. Cedars get started along fence lines where the birds perch and defalcate the seeds. Cedars are evergreens and once the get established will crowd out hardwoods by continuing to grow during the hardwoods dormant winter period. They also are water hogs and will take up more rainwater and ground water than other species.

Their sap contain an oil that burn very hot and is easy to ignite, this is where they become dangerous. Fire crews cannot get in close to battle a brush fire if the area is heavy with cedars. To much danger of entrapment. Lots of land owners are doing what the can to eradicate cedars but they are tough to chainsaw, you have to mix diesel with your bar oil to keep your chain running due to the sticky sap. Tree shears that mount on tractors are a popular item. Cut and toss the tree, spray the stump with glyphosphate, move on.
 
Do you know why the CCC dug all those ponds and planted all those tree rows in the 1930's, to end the dust bowl, and
attempt to end the desert cycles of the great American desert, the efforts mostly worked.
 
There seems to be a popular idea that all natural disasters like bad weather events, and wildfires would not have happened
if Human activity had not increased the CO2 level. The follow on to that idea is that all these natural disasters will stop
of only we stop the CO2 level from growing. (Net Zero). The irony is that such a belief requires people to suspend
logic and believe that such natural disasters did not occur before the CO2 level started to rise.
The facts are that Earth's average temperature is rising, but the cause of that increase in not added CO2,
but our successful efforts to clear air pollution. From 1992 to 2001 the amount of solar radiation that made it to the surface
increased by 6 W m-2. During the same time period, if one assumes the full sensitivity used by the IPCC for all added greenhouse gases
the added imbalance would be 0.277 W m-2. What this means is that Even if we achieve Net Zero CO2 emissions, our climate
will continue to change, because added CO2 is not driving the climate.
 

The EPA and whole lot of other left wing organizations have
predicted all manner of natural disasters to be acerbated by
the increase in CO2. That one of those predictions seems to
true shouldn't come as a great surprise.
 
longview said:
Do you know why the CCC dug all those ponds and planted all those tree rows in the 1930's, to end the dust bowl, and
attempt to end the desert cycles of the great American desert, the efforts mostly worked.
Click to expand...
Yep, an interesting time back then.

Cedars were'nt used for windbreaks, land owners already knew how envasive they were. Hackberry and bois d'arc and other native hardwoods were common. If the land was low and near a river, pecans were planted and gave the adantage a nut crop. For windbreaks near a house, the evergreen of choice was arborvitae.
 
Alas the law of unintended consequences, like when the Corp of Engineers sped up the Mississippi to push the sediments
out to the Gulf, and caused massive subsidence.
 
Felt like the apocalypse last Friday. The air was hazy filled with dark red dirt. The power went out multiple times and winds were over 60mph. Crazy times to be living.
 
Parker_Chess said:
Felt like the apocalypse last Friday. The air was hazy filled with dark red dirt. The power went out multiple times and winds were over 60mph. Crazy times to be living.
Click to expand...
Prepare as best you can, and be careful. For my area it is Hurricane season, but have a plan of when it is time to leave vs hunkering down.
 
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