Forest Fires and Climate Change Denial

 Are we seeing signs of desperation here?

As forest fires rage literally around the world, basically fulfilling what we have been told for a number of years now, people anxious to deny the existence of human-driven climate change are ramping up their conspiracies.

From Phys.org - Hawaii wildfires stoke climate denial, conspiracy theories

And in a similar article from Phys.org - Canada Wildfires Spark "Ecoterrorist" Conspiracy Theory.

This last story actually quotes the leader of a Federal political party here in Canada, spouting such nonsense.  But we've heard outrageous nonsense from him before.

So what is the reason for all these fires?

First, as we've been warned for quite a few years now, a warming planet (courtesy of our CO2 emissions), will mean more heat, less moisture and sometimes more "dry lightning".  Any of these and especially all three together, will result in more fires.

No, climate change doesn't "cause" the fires.  It just creates the conditions favourable for fires.

Second, it's pretty clear that most of the fires are caused by lightning.  The proportion varies - some can be caused by arson, most human-caused fires are caused by carelessness or accidents, and the rest can be from natural causes like lightning.

This story, also from Phys.org, notes that most of the causes come from Power lines, burning trash and lightning.

We've seen this desperation before.  During the COVID pandemic, the anti-vaxx crowd were operating in full force as the new vaccines were rolled out.  As literally billions were vaccinated with exceptionally few issues, all around the world, their supposed fears were proved wrong, so they doubled down again.  Nonsense like #diedsuddenly popped up.  Dire warnings about imminent deaths (or at least, deaths sometime, later, eventually....).  A stream of baseless claims entirely without evidence.

It's happening again, this time about forest fires.  That person referred to as MTG, that Republican representative from Georgia has - seriously - blamed high energy space lasers.  Other climate change deniers are latching on to the arson conspiracy.  Certainly, some fires are caused by arson, but I've looked at the information provided by the BC Wildfire Service.  As of August 18th, 2023, they report about 1800 fires, almost 400 still active.  They identify somewhat over 300 as having natural causes, like lightning.  About 24 were human-caused (not necessarily arson - more like untended campfires, cigarette butts, ATV use, forestry operations), and over 40 were undetermined.  In the part of the province where I live (the Southeast Fire District), I've been unable to find ANY fires listed as caused by arson, but I had an exchange with a person who insisted that "several" fires were caused that way.  She provided no details.  Kind of typical.  Make a claim.  Can't back it up.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Blamed Wildfires on Secret Jewish Space Lasers

So, I think this is, once again, desperation.  Things are happening that are challenging the narrative that some people have.  Climate change is a hoax.  The climate hasn't warmed.  Vaccines are deadly.  The virus isn't real and if it is, it's no worse than a cold.

When your personal narrative is challenged, you have two options.  Accept reality and change your narrative or double down and create fictional stories that will prop up your position.

In another post, I will present an exchange between myself and one of these conspiracy theorists.

Finding Ways to Skirt Facebook's Rules

It seems Facebook has decided to block any post that contains ANY news, apparently, not just Canadian news.  I recently tried to post a comment that contained a line from the Washington Post.  It was blocked.  Perhaps the WP has changed head offices.

This morning, I read a short article about some new subvariant of Omicron.  Nothing too exciting.  Perhaps a bit more transmissible, but current immunities seem to protect from it.

This is the story that was on the CBC's website:

I also posted a comment about anti-vaxxers in the comment section of that article.  It was blocked too (but by the CBC this time).  Apparently it's NOT OK to to point out the silliness of the anti-vaxxers position.  This is what it said:

Read the article for the information, stayed for the silly comments. And they never disappoint.

Anti-vaxxers have had almost 3 more years to push their narrative, and all they see in this most recent article is an existential threat to their cherished position. All I saw in the article was a bit of information. A new subvariant, nothing much to be concerned about yet. The virus keeps mutating. A booster perhaps, eventually. Ongoing surveillance - always best to be aware of what viruses are doing.

As I write this, a flood of anti-vaxx nonsense appearing in the comment feed below. As I say, to this crowd, anything remotely close to information is an existential threat to their cherished position.

The facts: Millions died around the world. Trivialize that fact if you must, but they're dead. Our World in Data has a very informative graph of deaths from COVID, comparing unvaccinated with vaccinated. The difference is stark. Sorry/not sorry. The flu? Yeah, multiplied by about 10x. There are numbers to support that claim. Microchips? You can't STILL be serious about that. Or about Bill Gates.... And they complain about lies politicians tell....

You'd think after years of this, the anti-vaxxers would just make their personal decisions, let the virus do what viruses do and give up making fools of themselves. Apparently we have not arrived at that point just yet.