‘Forest management alone cannot address the hotter, drier conditions that are making fires more intense … — that requires confronting the underlying crisis.’
‘Forest management alone cannot address the hotter, drier conditions that are making fires more intense … — that requires confronting the underlying crisis.’
Even if the US suddenly started completely addressing climate change, fires will continue to get worse, probably at least for a few decades, likely indefinitely.
Because:
A) These systems have a lot of momentum. Change happens slowly. We’re only beginning to feel the results of the damage that has already been done.
B) There’s a whole rest of the world out there. The US is a major source of climate-changing emissions, particularly egregiously so when compared on a per-capita basis … but the US isn’t even half of global emissions. If the entire US suddenly went ultra-green and entirely carbon neutral, that wouldn’t save the climate. It would slow things down a bit, but things would still continue to worsen.
That’s part of the reason this problem is so difficult to address – it’s not a one country problem. It’s a global problem. No single country – not even the US – can solve it on their own.
It’d sure be nice if a country (like the US, for example) would step up and lead the way, though. One country outputting nearly half of global emissions is pretty insane when you think about it. Somebody has to set an example and take the lead. The US would be a fantastic country to take on that mantle.
But… we all know they won’t - likely even with a president who isn’t a senile whackjob with dementia. Instead, we see things like the US pulling out of the Paris accord. We’re witnessing an active disinterest in solving this issue.