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.

NASA thinks you’re right, OP.

https://science.nasa.gov/earth/explore/wildfires-and-climate-change/

It’s not just climate change. It’s bad fucking management. Bullshit government environmental programs which prevent landowners from doing what’s needed to reduce fire load and protect both communities and wildlife.
It’s all very well having these wonderful shiny policies based in theory - till nature really does take over and it all goes up in flames.
Thousands of acres will burn this summer as a direct response to catastrophic bad management.

https://www.c4pmc.co.uk/post/two-major-wildfires-roaring-one-landowner-the-rspb-it-is-no-coincidence?fbclid=IwdGRjcATQy0twZG9mBWZkaWQWULJHUA3IfUnnGSerqkeTQZJFLCCLiGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR6BxoZiArFqRA1RMNlu6RYTuUex3KltxbzTfdDo_7YlPc72IZr0xkFqClfBrw_aem_zh1Zja-3R8ojFRTlV4Z2yA

This is a big issue and it annoys me that it doesn't get more coverage. My understanding is there's even been farmers who have said that for some reason they have not been allowed to push on with their usual fire break methods. I don't pretend to be an expert, but I'm aware that land planning in order to avoid fire spreading is definitely important.

That's before you get onto management of public land which is a lot different than it used to be

However, with all the fires burning across the UK at the moment - and there are a lot of of them - there's information about arrests made in connection with arson

It is striking to me that the one in the Caignorms appears to be an information black hole.

Definitely due to climate change.

Tipping point has been passed

No.
I don't do either.

It is incredibly frustrating. Right now there are firefighters, gamekeepers, farmers, police and the armed forces all out there risking their lives to put out a fire. A fire that begun on RSPB land. Land they have refused to implement any form of fire prevention management. As a direct result this fire is out of control and is no doubt now burning underground in the peat. Untold numbers of wildlife will die.
A town is being evacuated tonight. This could have been prevented despite global warming. If a fire plan had been created and effective firebreaks created this would not be happening.
It is no coincidence that this is happening on RSPB land and not on managed moorland.

@notwhingingjuststatingfacts thank you for that article

It has incredible similarities to all the stuff I read around the LA wild fires.

This lack of information is so frustrating - the only reason I knew where to look for information about LA was because I spent time working in the US. And I know enough about how things have been managed or mismanaged here to realise that I ought to be looking for that information.

Also, of course, there were a lot of land management issues relating to the impact ofhurricane Katrina.

Like with LA, it looks as if people in the Cairngorms have been warning about this for ages. So frustrating. I mean, I actually shouldn't get this irritated before I try to go to bed. But all the poor people who are suffering because of the fire. Aaarghhh

I don't know if the Cairngorms fire is on the news - I only know about it from social media and also because I was thinking of going up that way for a holiday, so I was following the right accounts. Otherwise, I'm not sure I'd know.

I haven't got a clue where to look for information about France, Spain, Italy I know (as I said) about the arrests that they've made and 100 seems like a lot.

editing to add - many thanks to all be able to work so hard to put these fires out. They must have a lot of stories. They must be absolutely furious. Meanwhile, I don't know what DEFRA do in relation to this kind of planning but after the Dartmoor ponies situation, I do not feel full of hope.

I’m not sure what you’re asking here OP?

Global warming and the weather are not two separate possible reasons for increased wild fires. Both of them are linked- global warming can and is influencing the weather which in turn affects wild fire spread.

The speed and depth of spread is very much affected by how dry the ground and surrounding grass and plants are, along with night time temperatures- both of which are directly linked to the weather, which in turn is linked to global warming.

We are on a slippery slope to a very bad place due to global warming, mostly caused by human activity.

As a species we have not prioritised the health of our planet. Initially through ignorance and subsequently through stupidity, hunger for power and greed. This will be our undoing.

Those of us who can see what is happening only have a tiny voice which isn’t listened to.

Yes it’s terrifying

and people still would rather blame China than change their ways

drive les
fly less
buy less

you might think it doesn’t matter but we would have been here a few years ago but for the actions of the few

so to those who have really tried - thank you , you have bought us a few years

and for the rest - yes your actions do bloody matter and no you don’t live a live of sackcloth and ashes and no you don’t have to be perfect

simple changes - eat less meat, try oat milk, walk somewhere you normally drive to , make do and mend something , celebrate with a party with friends without any gimmicks - you are enough after all

@backformoreofthesame can I ask if the things you want to do extend to trying to get governments to see that better land management would really help this problem?

And I know we can’t control crazy arsonists after the event but we can have things like raising awareness campaigns - not selling fireworks and disposable barbecues to the public etc so everyone can write to the relevant people about this yes?

I see a lot of “drive less, eat less meat” advocated on here but I’m not seeing much in the way of the other stuff.

I really am going to bed now! Interesting chat though. That’s my Friday night. Rock ‘n’ roll! 😂

We've been sleepwalking into this for years.

We've been brainwashed by the fossil fuel industries and the billionaires that make millions from these industries that it's all fine, we need bigger cars and fast fashion and foreign holidays, BAU right? It's too inconvenient, too expensive to change our lifestyles. These climate change activists like Chris Packham and Greta Thunburg, they are all just woke and hypocrites aren't they?

If we don't wake up now as the world burns - not just the world that we can't see or doesn't affect us - but on our doorstep then I don't know what it will take.

In terms of starting fires I think too many people just don’t think properly about what they are doing. I saw a grown adult today using a weeding tool which is basically a flame thrower powered via a gas cylinder. He was holding a long metal pole which had a sizeable flame coming out of one end that he was using to burn the weeds on the edge of his grass to smithereens. His grass looked absolutely ready to burn- brown, dry and like straw.

I tried to ask if he thought it might be a bit dangerous but he looked at me gone out and said (whilst holding the flame thrower complete with large flame) that B&Q wouldn’t sell them if they were dangerous.

I was just going to start a post on this actually, thinking about one of the poor Mumsnetters stuck in Bordeaux. There was a terrifying wildfire on the news when I was in Spain. They seem to be becoming more common and more out of control than before. It’s mostly why I couldn’t move permanently to Spain despite preferring the lifestyle.

It is 100% better to do something than not, but ultimately the people who contribute to the crisis the most are the ones who will make a difference. Nothing will really change unless they either reduce emissions or we make drastic changes to our lives.

But we have not been sleep walking at all! People have been warning about this for decades. At best they -we - were ignored. Mostly we were derided. People still don’t believe it. They just say that it happens every summer, or that it isn’t happening at all., or some such. Whilst there’s food in the shops, water in the taps and they can fly on planes to their holidays then everything is ok and nothing to worry about.

It’s predicted that climate change will cause between 80 million and 4 billion deaths by 2050. Who’s talking about that?

The Uk contributes less than 1% of global emissions. Yes it’s important we do what we can but it is still going to have a tiny impact in the grand scheme of things.

This isn’t about blame, it’s about change. Until the big polluters make big changes nothing will change. We have already possibly crossed the tipping point. We need to not only do what we can to prevent climate change but we also need to adapt to our changing climate.

I'm Ne Scotland..the smoke reached Aberdeen a distance of 50 to 59 miles from the fires.
As you said the fires in Spain /France took first slot in the news.
Definitely global warming not just weather.

firstly every gram of CO2 matters. That’s the single most important thing.

per person we emit a lot - 1% of emission from less than 0.1% of the worlds population?

We are emitting way more than our fair share. It’s people like us that have to change. Per person we are pretty similar to China - around 9 tonnes co2 per person. World average 4. USA 13.

our 1% number doubles if you take into consideration the emissions associated with the stuff we buy - the emissions associated with making that new thing from Amazon might have occurred in China but only becuase you bought things.

and there is the history- China may burn much now but they didn’t put so much out there 10 years ago.

there is a collective responsibility. If everyone takes the line that “what we do doesn’t matter “ the world dies. The more individuals change the longer we have

as well as looking at your own emissions , push governments to act.

Actually theres plenty we can do at an individual level

The difference between a high consumption lifestyle and a low consumption lifestyle is vast. We can all make choices to buy less stuff.

China,.for instance, is partly a *big polluter" because of all the shite people buy from there. So if people buy less "stuff" Chinas emissions will go down

China is also doing large scale reforestation problems and is miles ahead of the west in things like investment in solar.

It is terrifying, some are changing their ways but a lot aren’t. I know a lot of people that usually holiday abroad are now opting to travel within the UK. Ironically it is because they want to avoid the results of climate change rather than because they want to slow it down.

Global warming but still people will buy shit from temu. Go on extreme days out Drive instead of walking.
gotta won’t do anything at all. It will only change when it’s enforced or actually affects people directly.
humans are selfish

At least that's better than the people jetting off on holiday then doing a hand-wringing video of the fires and how awful climate change is without any grasp of the hypocrisy of having arrived there in a plane and escaping the fires in a hulking great rented SUV

Most fires are caused by humans so no I don’t think it’s the climate