I’ve been looking into the subject of wildfires and their alleged connection with climate change. In mid-February I looked at Wikipedia’s account of the “Camp Fire” that occurred in November 2018 in Paradise, California. Wikipedia, not known for its even-handedness when it comes to matters political, slips in the possibility of climate-change having played a role in that destructive and deadly fire. It identifies a broken power line owned by Pacific Gas and Electric as the igniter and strong down-slope winds as driving the firestorm into the two devastated communities. But nothing is said about official policies that sorely hindered proper forest management considered necessary to reduce the amount of combustible material on the forest floor, when the inevitable dry periods come. After all, rolling drought is a way of life in the Golden State.

Historic forest fires in the United States in 1871, 1910, and 1918 each claimed more human lives and destroyed far more acreage of forested lands than did the recent California fire. There is absolutely no justification for attributing any of the cited historic fires to climate change, although no one would suggest that adverse weather, in the form of prolonged drought, did not play an important role in their spread and development.

Photo by raquel raclette on Unsplash.