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

[Greedybilly]

What are your thoughts?
I'm finding the whole thing bloody terrifying and feel like we're all just sleep walking into a bit of a nightmare.

If people say weather I might cry.

The current Scottish wildfires are definitely global warming related. Large scale wildfires in Scotland of all places are not normal.

In the Alps Mont Blanc is currently off limits as the heat makes it too dangerous - melting ice causes rockfall. The glaciers are receding at a terrifying pace.

Well it's clearly global warming. I don't think many ordinary people ( at least those who aren't terminally de-brained by X and/or Putin 's little mouthpieces on GB news) think any different. Most of us can see perfectly well what is happening to the world, I think.

Well when there's little rain the vegetation dries out and dies. Then it's just tinder. So fires spread rapidly. No need to be terrified. When it rains a lot the ground gets waterlogged and whole cities can flood. When the wind blows a lot buildings can fall down. It's just weather. The summer of 76 was the same. So was the summer of 2003, so was this summer. Calm down. There's absolutely nothing anyone can do about the weather.

There are lots of idiots out there.

I'm Australian and there's no snow here this year in the (now inaccurately named) Snowy Mountains. There's a few people who post after every news article that it's a complete coincidence and the snow will be back next year.

I suppose realistically, those people that make comments online like "there was a fire in 1973 so there's no such thing as global warming" have no power anyway. Even if they understood and were worried, it would make no difference.

Edit: and they've arrived!

Didn't stop us flying to Europe and back.

If you think it's man made what are you doing/not doing to help reduce carbon emissions?
I'm not flying but do sometimes wonder.....
are we all just wasting our time when people fly off on business every week? 😒

What are you doing?

Waiting for the end to come? I try to reduce carbon output and also campaign for the Government to make changes, but realistically there is nothing we can do at this stage.

Whatever you think about it, we've got a really big problem with people using disposable barbecues and not putting out cigarettes properly - or indeed just throwing them into tinder dry leaves!

Yes it’s scary.
its so so dry, I wonder how many summers like this the uk countryside can tolerate before desertification starts?

@EmeraldRoulette- I agree it's crazy that we can still buy bbq's. Don't know what the answer to fag ends is?

My dh does actually fly a lot for business. And to the middle East as well! And also lo and behold he's done work for oil and gas companies there as well.

@LimeSegment- I'm starting to agree with you . Bloody depressing. And people are weirdly defensive about it when you raise it.

The UK has decarbonised and cut emissions a lot since 2010. Done so well actually

@Twoshoesnewshoes-who knows? garden centres are flogging 'drought proof plants' as though that's a great thing.

Of course it’s man made global warming.

I have family members working in agriculture. It’s a really worrying time for them. Their largest irrigation lake is nearly dry, they have ££££s invested in crops, with no rain forecast.

Reding that drivel has somehow caused irreversible damage to my brain.

Easy answer but I appreciate you won't know this if you have never smoked.. (are used to like the odd one but I don't smoke in the street because I think it looks bad, call me a snob!)

You can carry little containers around with you and you put the cigarette out in the container and put the butt in the container. I actually even see adverts for them on here.

I think there's been more than 100 arrests in France for arson in connection with the current fires so I'm assuming that includes areas where disposable barbecues are banned?

I was having a walk in the woods and I gave somebody an earful for doing that wither cigarette. But I'm not gonna lie if it had been a bloke I might have thought twice.... it just infuriates me. She can see everything is parched!

I hear France, Spain, etc have all got the same problems as California had last time in that the authorities no longer do regular forest clearings. So there's lots of dry and deadwood around and it makes it easier for the fires to spread.

@Bikenutz-horrible for them :(

Do you all drive cars and heat your home with gas boilers?

We just need fewer humans. I'm hopeful now people are having fewer kids that'll help a lot. Anything else just feels like throwing deck chairs off the Titanic.

Do you realise less polluting technologies have been invented, and are widely available? Gas boilers are themselves substantially less polluting than what came before, ie open coal fires.

Watching ITN ( so UK-wide) news tonight after smelling and breathing in smoke from the Cairngorms fires all day (I'm in NE Scotland).

First item (quite rightly) was the Spanish and French fires. Plus a later section on the explosion in Essex (which I believe has sadly has caused a death and injuries) and mentioning that everyone in the area has been told to keep their windows shut while firefighters deal with the blaze.

But was there anything about the Cairngorm fires that have been burning for days and are now out of control amid evacuations and the announcement of a major incident by Police Scotland? Nope. Absolutely nothing.

Certainly no mention of the public health advice which would also have been important to reiterate to viewers like me in surrounding areas. A major Scottish city (Aberdeen) has been covered by smoke and pollution to a dangerous level as a result of these fires and this doesn't even warrant a mention on the national teatime news.

Why is that? If we can't even be bothered to report what is happening in the UK to the UK, how can we ever expect people in the UK to take increasingly severe climate change seriously as a threat?

I equate many of those fires with humans actually lighting them, or being irresponsible/careless with cigarettes etc. A fire started in wild land near where I live a few weeks ago - deliberately lit.

Clearly, the climate is changing, I don't think that can be denied any longer. Why is it changing, is it mankind's doing or is it just natural change? I don't know, but we are going to need to adapt.

I think the reason some people are so defensive is that deep down, they know it's true and they are scared. The only was they can mentally cope is angry denial, like if they believe it enough, maybe it will be true.