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.