Fire watch

[adam2]

The death toll in the Hawaii fire disaster continues to grow, as does criticism of the poor response to the disaster by TPTB. The head of emergency planning has resigned in response to public pressure.

As in previous fire disasters in urban areas, much of the fuel for the fire seems to have been houses, vehicles and the contents thereof. They need regulations requiring that all new construction be of fire resisting materials. Brick, stone, or concrete for walls, metal or ceramic tiles for roof covering, and aluminium for door and widow frames.
Discourage the use, and therefore storage, of petrol. Diesel fuel is safer and should be encouraged for cars and boat engines, perhaps by increasing taxes on petrol but not on diesel fuel.

Discourage use of LPG for domestic water heating, solar thermal is much safer as well as greener.

Require that all new homes have significant on site water storage, probably in a swimming pool, and a portable fire pump, NOT petrol, see above.

[BritDownUnder]

I think a large LPG/propane tank is seen as being a bit of a preparation by a lot of Americans particularly those in hurricane and snow belt.

Hawaii being tropical may also prefer light wooden construction with a lot of openings in the house to let cooling night time breezes in. I do know that there is a lot of wooden construction in the US even outside of tropical areas so that cooling effect might not be a good reason. Also I think the US does seem to love its bitumen roof shingles that burn like crazy when they get alight.

The swimming pool thing is a good idea and I would think that a lot of house fires in Australia have been stopped by a conveniently located swimming pool.

[kenneal - lagger]

The Medieval Warm Period was local to Europe and the North Atlantic area and is not seen in world wide average figures.

[northernmonkey]

We are just in an inter-glacial. Nothing special.

https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.nor ... 1-AM-1.png

https://sites.northwestern.edu/elanness ... ploration/

Now, as for trashing the eco system. Well, that's another story

[kenneal - lagger]

https://sites.northwestern.edu/elanness ... ploration/
tells us that we aren't "just in another interglacial" with "Nothing special".

To quote from your reference

The global warming we see today is exacerbated by amplifying feedback loops related to CO2 concentrations; CO2 concentrations today are at abnormally high levels never seen before in Earth’s history and have nearly doubled in the past 100 years.
Large-scale, immediate changes need to be made at the individual, societal, and global level to mitigate the effects of climate change.

If you are going to quote references, northernmonkey, perhaps you should not only read them but also make sure that you understand what they are saying.

Normally I would discount any output from a scientist who is not a climate scientist but Ness-Cohn, a biologist, has taken the trouble to take a course in Climate Science and shows a solid grasp of the basics of Climate Science as a result. He is also arguing for anthropogenic climate change to be taken very seriously indeed.

[northernmonkey]

I didn't say he wasn't. The numbers in that chart, however, do not lie. I know exactly what they are saying thankyou.

[adam2]

Serious wildfires in Canada, it seems very early in the year for large fires. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-69005913

[kenneal - lagger]

It seems that the wildfire season is both getting earlier and moving northwards. Both symptoms of global warming.

[adam2]

Huge fires destroy up to half of historic town in Canada
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyj423n2jdgo

Later report here, with images showing the scale of the destruction. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wv2902y98o

[BritDownUnder]

Canada really seems to be getting it bad at the moment. I can inform that since 2019/2020 the Australian fire situation has not been too bad due to the wet weather over the past few years - now four years.
It is affecting my solar PV performance all these more overcast days.

[kenneal - lagger]

I cannot see how people can be allowed to offset consumption through planting trees. The trees planted are inevitably trees local to the area now and these are the trees which are going to suffer from diseases new to the area as climate zones move polewards bringing new pests with them. Also in a warmer climate wildfires will be more prevalent, as we are now seeing, and what is burning at the moment? Trees, of course!

Still, offsetting is driven by economists so no one should be surprised that it doesn't work!

[adam2]

Wildfires in Greece are increasingly serious, with large scale evacuations.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c80e5l54y3gt

[BritDownUnder]

I cannot see how people can be allowed to offset consumption through planting trees. The trees planted are inevitably trees local to the area now and these are the trees which are going to suffer from diseases new to the area as climate zones move polewards bringing new pests with them. Also in a warmer climate wildfires will be more prevalent, as we are now seeing, and what is burning at the moment? Trees, of course!

Still, offsetting is driven by economists so no one should be surprised that it doesn't work!

It might be useful to put trees in areas at risk from desertification like China has done a lot of. A lot of carbon can be stored in soil after a few generations of trees have grown there but this is at risk from rising temperature perhaps?

[kenneal - lagger]

.....................
It might be useful to put trees in areas at risk from desertification like China has done a lot of. A lot of carbon can be stored in soil after a few generations of trees have grown there but this is at risk from rising temperature perhaps?

It is being done in some places but it is being sold for offsetting! My comment above then becomes relevant.