Do people equate the global wild fires with global warming? Or is it still just weather?

Currently staying with my DM in Spain and we had a big wildfire in the hills just above her urbanisation. We were told to pack a bag and be ready to evacuate. Looked terrifyingly close from the rooftop. It took 24 hours to get it under control and another 24 before it was fully out and damped down with 4 helicopters dropping water and many fire crews. Luckily it didn’t reach the houses but it was close. It has been unusually hot here and the official opinion on the cause is storm systems in the area which dried out due to the extreme heat and caused thermal bursts, which are basically rushes of superheated air which hit the tinder dry ground and cause the dry litter to spontaneously combust. Definitely a feature of global warming and worryingly could become a regular occurrence.

Yup. Son went to nandos today. We have 3 kids.

There is global warming.
The main reason is down to the use of fossil fuels we are told.
But politicians need to go a step further. The main use or overuse of fossil fuels is because the global population is ever growing and expanding.

The continued need for so many raw materials, the need for land for food, housing, agriculture, industry and technology is all because there are too many people on the planet. That needs to change.

Until climate conventions have the global population on the agenda as a topic to discuss it is all pointless.

Wow, you think my issue is about feeling "left out"?

Editorial decisions over the content of the flagship evening bulletin of a major news organisation directly affect the information many people receive. Everyone's wringing their hands over the impact that algorithms have over what we are exposed to on social media but the critical question of who decides what 'news' is and why it's considered news on the mainstream media should never go away.

And not everyone is in a position to (or wants to) watch rolling 24 hour BBC news. Some people have issues with the BBC itself (and FWIW, the Cairngorm fires were not on the UK homepage of BBC news yesterday, they were only reported on the Scotland page). Some people prefer to watch ITV programmes of an evening and will watch the news bulletins on there because that's what pops up.

OP's point was about whether people are able to just keep sticking their head in the sand and say climate extremes are just 'fluke weather' or 'well, it's going to happen over there [France, Spain, Greece] as they've always been hotter than us'. OP has also said they had to google the Cairngorm fires to find out about them.

I would argue that we are seeing events happening now in the UK that are extreme for us even if they are not on the same scale as events in continental Europe. But if the media don't flag up that these are happening to everyone across the whole UK, less people will realise that climate change is repeatedly having a considerable impact on us in the UK now and in a democracy, that means less pressure on our representatives to take action.

And so that is specifically why I'm alarmed about the content and omissions in last night's ITN news bulletin.

And eat meat? And have more than one child? And fly abroad? And buy stuff made from China and shipped across the world? Etc etc. where does the blame stop🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

This is interesting to me, I hope it isn't anything to do with hunters not liking the rspb, and starting fires to make a point. Just a thought, I know a couple of bird hunters and they are not nice people.

China (and India) reduced their output from coal-powered power stations just last year. Renewable energy is now cheaper.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-coal-power-drops-in-china-and-india-for-first-time-in-52-years-after-clean-energy-records

Most wildfires are caused by humans. In Scotland changes to muirburn licencing a factor too as more difficult to control burn circuit breakers.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/article/france-unveils-plan-to-ditch-all-fossil-fuels-by-2050/

The fires in Spain, the one where 13 people died, you need to understand the region. It’s classified as a desert area, and in the summer temps are 30s though it had been getting hotter (40s this week). So the vegetation is very very dry. This particular fire they believe was started by a fallen live cable, but it really wouldn’t take much - a spark from a BBQ, a carelessly discarded cigarette. ( The current fire in central Spain has been partially attributed to a spark from farm machinery). And as it’s a very hilly area the flames can race up a hill, and there’s often one road in one out of these villages. If it’s windy fire can travel at 20km an hour.
So why are the temps getting warmer? Why are some countries (UK, Spain USA etc) seeing longer drier spells?
And before someone mentions the increased floods, well dry soil means it’s too hard to absorb water and can cause flooding. Plus for every 1 degree increase in temperature, the atmosphere can hold 7% more water vapour, resulting in torrential downpours when it does rain.
And look at the glaciers, which are shrinking in an unprecedented rate.
Scientists can analyse loads of data and run computer models comparing real world data and fictional world, where the industrial age never happened. And guess what? The extreme weather patterns, the increased temperatures don’t exist in the fictional world beyond usual cyclical fluctuations. Seems pretty clear.
What can we do? It may feel like the government isn’t doing anything, or is a bit misguided (lots of land is being harmed in the mining of essential minerals that are needed for the batteries of EVs and windmills). But they are.

No. Children are. If you want to talk about carbon emissions. And you'll never convince China to close their coal fired power stations. Because they use the electricity to power the factories that make the cheap EVs we are obsessed with. Fossil fuels aren't the problem. People are. Reduce the population and you reduce the pollution. But nobody is prepared to do that. So, there's nothing anyone can do.

People are so fucking thick.

It is absolutely doable. It is a medium term plan every mainstream UK party put its weight behind. Net Zero by 2050.

Net Zero doesn't mean we completely end releasing carbon into the atmosphere. It means we balance the CO2 we release with the CO2 taken out by e.g. trees.

We have already halved our carbon emissions nationally between 1990 and 2022, mostly by switching our electricity generation from burning coal to sustainable methods. We need to keep going, electrifying home heating and transport as quickly as we can.

You absolutely don't need to live off grid to decarbonise. I generate a lot of my household power with solar and store it in a domestic battery, but also draw from the grid, paying for electricity from renewables.

It's doable. A lot of it is being done. One of the biggest challenges to it not happening is regressive voices (often from political parties funded by the oil industry) saying it's impossible. We need to provide the counter-argument, not just accept constant warming is inevitable until great swathes of the planet become unable to provide food.

I know in theory, we can run everything off renewables

But that's an incredibly long-term plan. Which is already been worked on, isn't it?

When people say "stop burning fossil fuels" - maybe in 100 years we can do that?

What about the energy we need

@MasterBeth if you want to stop burning fossil fuels you literally need to live off grid. From the land. I am not prepared to accept that. edit - I'm aware you don't expect to do this overnight.

As you are actually using a device to type this message - are you really prepared for that?

Yes there is. We can stop burning fossil fuels. The single biggest contributor to climate change.

Theres nothing we can do. Absolutely nothing. Temperatures have risen and fallen in the past. Climate change is the new religeon. Ever wondered why the solution to it is to pay money? Ever think about that?

Look at the comments on the Telegraph and all the fires are either started by eco-terrorists who want to prove climate change is real (hint, it is!) or by Iranian agents. I suspect most are accidents (or at least not deliberately started) eg using a BBQ or dropping a cigarette end (or caused by lightning strikes) but they are far far worse because everywhere is tinder dry and hot.

People don't want to change their lifestyles. Look how angry they get about cyclists too. I mean, how dare someone use an eco-friendly form of transport instead of a polluting SUV (or older diesel).

I think I'll go and live in a cave or something.

It's all too depressing and scary now, with little prospect of much change on the way, despite our individual efforts.

I am glad now I don't have children. Sorry if that upsets those who do, it must be so worrying thinking about their futures, in more ways than just climate change too.

I was going to say this. Yes, climate change is causing this. But changes in the way we manage the land, often in reaction to climate change, also contributes.

There needs to be lessons learned from this year, and the knowledge of experienced land owners and managers needs to be taken on board alongside environmentalists, to reduce risks. There are cases where controlled burning might be necessary. It's a balance.

At a global level, it is indeed about the temperatures going up. And up. And up. And up. At a speed not experienced before while humans have been on the planet.

This manifests itself in different ways across the continents, seasons and ecosystems. More, more extreme weather: wet, cold, windy and hot.

Climate change is about more than summers getting hotter though, it's about weather patterns changing and more unusual weather phenomenon which we have seen over and over again - floods all over the world, excess rainfall etc etc.

If the ice caps are melting as they are then this all makes sense, it's not just about temperatures going up.

Have served a fair few people who have commented on a front page local newspaper article calling bs. Saying if there was a climate crisis sure it would all be the US and China so we can’t do anything anyway.

And people asking why fires aren’t being covered? Because everyday people only want to know about their holiday destinations

Oh aren't you a joy..I'm teasing.
It's so bloody depressing all round.