Expert: Warming Climate Fuels Mega-Fires

[gulfcoastliberal]

(CBS) Every year you can count on forest fires in the West like hurricanes in the East, but recently there has been an enormous change in Western fires. In truth, we've never seen anything like them in recorded history. It appears we're living in a new age of mega-fires -- forest infernos ten times bigger than the fires we're used to seeing.

cut

At the University of Arizona, Swetnam keeps a remarkable woodpile, comprised of the largest collection of tree rings in the world. His rings go back 9,000 years, and each one of those rings captures one year of climate history.

Swetnam found recent decades have been the hottest in 1,000 years. And recently, he and a team of top climate scientists discovered something else: a dramatic increase in fires high in the mountains, where fires were rare.

cut

Asked how much things have changed, Swetnam tells Pelley, "Well, we're seeing century-old forests that had never sustained these kinds of fires before, being razed to the ground."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/18/60minutes/main3380176.shtml?source=mostpop_story

[Common Sense Party]

1. Are these mega-fires happening all over the world? nt

[pscot]

2. There were big fires

in Greece and the Balkans earlier this year.