New paper finds a long-term decrease in fire activity: Published in Quaternary Research reconstructs fire activity in Israel and finds, ‘a long-term decline in fire activity over the past 3070 years’

New paper finds a long-term decrease in fire activity

http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/2013/08/new-paper-finds-long-term-decrease-in.html

A new paper published in Quaternary Research reconstructs fire activity in Israel and finds, “a long-term decline in fire activity over the past 3070 years, from high biomass burning ~ 3070–1750 years before the present to significantly lower levels after ~ 1750 years before the present. The paper corroborates several other peer-reviewed papers demonstrating a long-term decrease in fire activity and that current levels of fire activity are not unusual, unnatural, or unprecedented. 

Fire activity is shown in graphs f and g, demonstrating a long-term decrease in fire activity over the past 3070 years. The Medieval Warming Period is labeled as “MCA” and Little Ice Age as “LIA”. Graph b is a proxy of temperature and precipitation, which was higher during the MCA, Roman, and Minoan Warming Periods. Horizontal axis is years before the present.

Climatic and human controls on the late Holocene fire history of northern Israel

Nadine B. Quintana Krupinskia, , , 
Jennifer R. Marlonb, 
Ami Nishric, 
Joseph H. Streetd, 
Adina Paytand

a Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
b Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
c Yigal Allon Kinneret Limnological Laboratory, Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research, P.O. Box 345, Tiberias N/A 14102, Israel
d Institute of Marine Sciences, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA

Abstract

Long-term fire histories provide insight into the effects of climate, ecology and humans on fire activity; they can be generated using accumulation rates of charcoal and soot black carbon in lacustrine sediments. This study uses both charcoal and black carbon, and other paleoclimate indicators from Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel, to reconstruct late Holocene variations in biomass burning and aridity. We compare the fire history data with a regional biomass-burning reconstruction from 18 different charcoal records and with pollen, climate, and population data to decipher the relative impacts of regional climate, vegetation changes, and human activity on fire. We show a long-term decline in fire activity over the past 3070 years, from high biomass burning ~ 3070–1750 cal yr BP [before the present] to significantly lower levels after ~ 1750 cal yr BP [before the present]. Human modification of the landscape (e.g., forest clearing, agriculture, settlement expansion and early industry) in periods of low to moderate precipitation appears to have been …

Second Slowest Fire Season On Record In The US: National Interagency Fire Center ‘The number of US fires this year is at a record low, and burn area is second lowest at 62% of normal.  There were six times as many fires in 1938’

Second Slowest Fire Season On Record In The US:

http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/second-slowest-fire-season-on-record-in-the-us

National Interagency Fire Center The number of US fires this year is at a record low, and burn area is second lowest at 62% of normal.  There were six times as many fires in 1938. http://trove.nla.gov.au/

400 PPM CO2 Update! ‘Coldest summer on record at North Pole — Highest Aug. Arctic ice extent since 2006 — Record high Aug. Antarctic ice extent — No major hurricane strikes for 8 years — Slowest tornado season on record — No global warming for 17 years – 2nd slowest fire season on record’

Via Real Science: 

  • Coldest summer on record at the North Pole
  • Highest August Arctic ice extent since 2006
  • Record high August Antarctic ice extent
  • No major hurricane strikes (Cat 3 or larger) for eight years
  • Slowest tornado season on record
  • No global warming for 17 years
  • Second slowest fire season on record
  • Four of the five snowiest northern hemisphere winters have occurred since 2008

Claim: Media avoids linking firefighter deaths to global warming to avoid appearance of climatic ambulance-chasing

Claim: Media avoids linking firefighter deaths to global warming to avoid appearance of climatic ambulance-chasing

http://junkscience.com/2013/07/18/claim-media-avoids-linking-firefighter-deaths-to-global-warming-to-avoid-appearance-of-climatic-ambulance-chasing

Inside Climate News reports: Scientists agree that climate change was very likely one of the underlying triggers for the Yarnell Hill wildfire in Arizona that killed 19 firefighters on June 30. But while some of the nation’s media have acknowledged global warming’s link to the tragedy, others have ignored it entirely. The discrepancy highlights an […]…