Comments

1
Oh, praise the gods! Some real science writing!
2
In addition, we need to understand global warming potentials: EPA.
3
At least our state isn't burning as badly as it did in previous years (so far, knock on wood). It gets this hot every year for a little while, it's really not that bad.
4
How does "provide a home for every homeless person" get turned into "poor people should be illegal"?
5
@4 Yes you'd think a scientist would have better reading comprehension. Cliff Mass argued to build massive amounts of low cost, centralized housing for homeless people in one of the underutilized industrial districts, THEN make living under bridges and shit illegal. Call it a "ghetto" or "the projects" all you want, but it'd be miles better than the current situation where people camp on the side of highways.
6
As an "earth scientist", I'm sure you know that large forest fires are primarily caused by decades of poor logging practices and short sighted fire suppression policies.
7
@6, ...and population expansion, and borer beetles, and irrigation/water management issues, and arson, and...the list goes on and on but human induced climate change is also a major contributing factor to forest fires that we shouldn't overlook.
8
The real piece around attribution that is often lost is this: it doesn’t really matter.


One must wonder, then, why a certain alt-weekly reporter who shall not be named is so mulishly adamant in his demands that one particular local Earth scientist should make that attribution, without any data to back it up.

9
#7, sure, but too many trees in the forest leads to stress, which weakens trees. I'm no climate change skeptic, but let's look at the whole picture. Bottom line for me: There are just too damn many people.
10
I think we're looking at a case of climate change (heat wave) exacerbating smoke impacts from a forest fire possibly caused by non-climate change factors (forest management, arsonists, sloppy humans starting fires).

Intersecting environmental crises, aggravated by an increasingly warm climate. That's our future and legacy.
11
https://www.dropbox.com/s/joylyxgksrle4k…

It's worse than that and it's all natural. Carbon-dioxide is not to blame.
12
Sarah Myhre's editorial piece is very disappointing. One of the first things scientists learn is not to make fun of or mock other scientists when they disagree on the interpretation of data and models. Sarah Myhre has evidently not learned this important lesson. Only in respectful discourse can scientists work to find the truth. Second, scientists must not make up facts and dissemble. Sarah said things about me that are simply untrue--for example, claiming I believe poor people should be illegal. Why does she make up such stuff? But perhaps most disturbing is that she seems confused about attribution of severe weather events to human-caused climate change. One can never claim a single event is "proof" of anthropogenic global warming. First, the event has to do with human-induced climate change and second one needs a statistically significant trend to provide evidence of a climate connection. Regrettably, she seems uninformed that the major cause of the increase in major fires is our mismanagement of our forests, not climate change. I hope she will talk to some of our colleagues in the College of the Environment to get better information about this. The Stranger allowed me and Mr. Mudede to debate about climate change. I would be delighted to have a similar opportunity with Sarah Myhre, who appears to have taken on his role.
13
Hey, Mr. Clifford - Just read your essay and Dr. Myhre's. What's the difference between unlawful and illegal? And what's the difference between poor and homeless? Finally, if you put something in quote marks...what are you quoting? Do you have "proof" of a statement or are you just making an argument against something that was never said in the first place? Feel free to not answer or to answer obliquely.
14
A real scientist does some research before expressing an opinion. Regrettably, Cliff Mass didn't do that.

Westerling et al. 2006 correlate an increase in the magnitude of western U.S. wildfires with earlier spring snowmelt and increased spring and summer temperatures. They show little influence from land-use history.

The story is the same in Canada. Temperature is highly correlated with total area burned in Canada (r = 0.77), explaining 59% of the variance of the five year totals (Gillett et al., 2004). If that's the case, then what makes you think "mismanagement of our forests" is the major cause?

Gillett, N. P., et al. "Detecting the effect of climate change on Canadian forest fires." Geophysical Research Letters 31.18 (2004).

Westerling, Anthony L., et al. "Warming and earlier spring increase western US forest wildfire activity." science 313.5789 (2006): 940-943.
15
Aaron...First, my blog on homelessness has nothing to do with climate change and Sarah M.'s bringing it up is simply being ad hominem...completely inappropriate. And I NEVER said that being poor would be illegal as S. Myhre claims. I said leaving folks on the street was wrong, that we should build housing for all of them, and then enforce laws on the books about making it illegal to leave on the streets or city parks. They would have to move to the free housing.

Lowerdinwoody...there is an extensive and large literature that the main problem today is our mismanagement of the forests. I have talked about this in depth with my colleagues in the College of Environmental and Forest Resources at the UW . I have read dozens of papers on this and several books to educate myself on this. And I spend a lot of time in the eastern slope forests. ..cliff mass
16
Why wouldn't warmer winters and less deaths due to freezing offset hotter summers? Cold causes 20 times more deaths than heat. The quality of life for humans is getting better as the globe warms. The Renaissance was driven by a climate optimum that allowed humans to flourish.
17
"2. Make it unlawful for any individual to sleep in public places such as under roadways or bridges, on sidewalks, parks, or other outdoor spaces. And enforce this ban with sufficient resources to make it effective, once sufficient housing is available."
http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2017/05/th…

That's making homelessness illegal. If you intended to make a more nuanced argument, I suggest sticking to subjects in which you're trained: meteorology — not social policy or climate science.
18
Reiterating your opinion and appealing to your own authority... not a persuasive argument, cliff.
19
@Clifford Mass - You're complaining about ad hom but you also called another scientist "uninformed" when clearly, she's plenty informed. Just because someone disagrees with you about what they think is important for society to focus on doesn't mean they're uninformed about the questions you pose. Anyway, if you think how we treat poor people has nothing to do with the topic at hand, maybe you missed the point of the essay. Climate attribution studies are stupendously interesting and great, but they don't change how clean our air is or whether or not someone's house floods.

@lowerdinwoody - I feel the same way. It's just unresponsive to the points we've raised, and this is coming from a guy who wants The Stranger to host some debate for him. Just silly.
20
Sattleeco...you are not understanding what I have written. I have never said homelessness is to be made illegal, but rather sleeping in public places (and yes using them as public bathrooms). A person who is homeless will be offered safe, warm, shelter with food/services available. There will still be homeless (they won't be owning or renting a residence), but they will be off the streets. It is the humane, ethical way to handle the issue. You rather leaves folks in filth outside, sometimes dying in the cold and elements? In any case, what in the world does this have to do with climate?..cliff mass
21
"the changing geometric relationship between the earth and the sun"
It sounds like you're referencing Milankovitch variability. Is that your intent?

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