While not a full-bore media hype yet, there are the beginnings of chatter on blogs and Twitter that the Colby fire in Southern California might somehow be related to “climate change”. NASA MODIS has this image and explanation:
Colby Fire Near Los Angeles, California
A wildfire started and spread quickly in the foothills northeast of Los Angeles on January 16, 2014. The plume of ash and smoke blanketed much of the metropolitan area and prompted air quality warnings.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites captured this images of the Colby fire:
According to InciWeb, the fire started around 6 a.m. Pacific Time on January 16 in Angeles National Forest near Glendora, California. As of 3 p.m. local time, nearly 500 firefighters were working the fire, which had destroyed 1,700 acres and at least two homes. Fire officials were concerned about gusty winds and extremely low humidity that could promote fire growth.
References:
- InciWeb: Incident Information System (2014, January 16) Colby Fire. Accessed January 16, 2014.
- Los Angeles Times (2014, January 26) Colby fire: Plume of smike, ask prompts air quality advisories. Accessed January 16, 2014.
- Los Angeles Times (2014, January 26) Wildfire near L.A.: Firefights brace for wind gusts, heat. Accessed January 16, 2014.
NASA image by Holli Riebeek and courtesy LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michael Carlowicz.
Source: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/colby-fire-near-los-angeles-california/
================================================================
So before we get into the blame game of climate change, it might be worth noting that it appears the fires were started by some pothead campers.
Three men arrested in accidentally setting the highly-dangerous Colby Fire plaguing Southern California were found with pot in their backpacks, according to local reports. They are being held on $500,000 bail, according to police Sergeant Michael Hammond at the Glendora Police Department. According to Police Chief Tim Staab, the three men did not set the fire purposefully: “It wasn’t an arson. They are charged with a crime but part of it is criminal stupidity.”
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/3-arrested-ca-fire-had-pot-backpacks
The fire was caused by a change in the *political* climate of increased tolerance of marijuana use.
Homeless folks campfire got out of control…
Three men accused of lighting a campfire that grew into the destructive Colby Fire were behind bars with bail amounts of $500,000 each late Thursday, officials said.
Clifford Eugene Henry, 22, of Glendora, Jonathan Carl Jarrell, 23, of Irwindale and Steven Robert Aguirre, 21, a transient whose last known address was in Los Angeles, were booked on suspicion of unlawfully causing a fire of a structure or forest land…
“It wasn’t an arson,” Staab said. “They are charged with a crime but part of it is criminal stupidity.”
The men had grown cold and placed more paper into a campfire when the fire grew out of control.
Glad you had the part about the campers, I just heard it on the news. I hope no one is injured by this stupidity.
Blaming AGW is all the rage with the eco-loon warmistas here in Australia. They have to get themselves in the msm somehow and the ‘science’ is running a bit low these days. Come to think of it, a bunch of potheads or ex potheads are to blame for the whole CAGW warmista thing anyway.
1700 acres? Really? 1700?
This is 6 orders of magnitude smaller than the area burnt annually, BEFORE California was settled.
“Fire plaguing Southern California were found with pot in their backpacks, “
Yes, they were so upset about the global warming problem they were driven to pot smoking… which dulled their senses and led to the fire. So there you have it. Climate change *is* responsible.
fat fingers. 3 orders of magnitude….
What? A fire? Of course it is climate changinatiationitivity. Both Fire and Ice are.
I had heard on the news this morning that they potheads were throwing paper into the fire, before it got away from them.
This is not going to go over well with the other massive advocacy BS group that promoted Pot for all great and wonderful, harmless purposes over the years. Call it the clash of the advocacy BS titans.
How old are those homeless-by-choice guys anyway?
Didn’t they watch any Saturday morning cartoons when they were little kids? We saw stuff like this ALL the time. (they handed out comic books at school, too, for cryin’ out loud)
Guess their memories need refreshing, so……………
Yo, weed dudes. Listen up: “Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires.”
Smokey Bear
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4b6d6Kd_34
“This is not going to go over well with the other massive advocacy BS group that promoted Pot for all great and wonderful, harmless purposes over the years. Call it the clash of the advocacy BS titans.”
Won’t make an issue out of it except to briefly note that many of you Conservative types like to scream bloody murder over government interference when it suits you, but draconian drug laws are perfectly fine. I never could wrap my mind around this paradox. Let’s throw people in prison for smoking a plant that grows in nature. It that’s not an infringement of civil rights, I don’t know what is…
Too bad there is never any details provided about what exactly is burning by the alarmists? Is it because it is the chaparral that is burning, an ecoregion that exists because of wildfire in the first place?
Didn’t the governor just declare a statewide drought emergency? I lived in CA for more than 40 years and cannot remember a statewide declaration, although I do remember mandatory rationing in Santa Cruz County in the early to mid 90’s.
pokerguy says:
January 17, 2014 at 11:42 am
“This is not going to go over well with the other massive advocacy BS group that promoted Pot for all great and wonderful, harmless purposes over the years. Call it the clash of the advocacy BS titans.”
Won’t make an issue out of it except to briefly note that many of you Conservative types like to scream bloody murder over government interference when it suits you, but draconian drug laws are perfectly fine. I never could wrap my mind around this paradox. Let’s throw people in prison for smoking a plant that grows in nature. It that’s not an infringement of civil rights, I don’t know what is…
Agreed. Blaming a wildfire on pot is as bad as simply pointing at AGW. I’m quite certain human stupidity and carelessness was around well before flower power.
Robert W Turner says:
January 17, 2014 at 11:46 am
“Let’s throw people in prison for smoking a plant that grows in nature. It that’s not an infringement of civil rights, I don’t know what is…”
As long as they give up their driving license I’m fine with it.
Actually, the fire is “anti-global warming” as the men were:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-colby-fire-update-20140116,0,6021283.story#ixzz2qgehlQ3k
“the fire, which had destroyed 1,700 acres”
That’s one destructive fire! Imagine, acres gone (destroyed); never to be able to be used again.
(/sarc)
Good point, Phil Jourdan.
So…. AGWers, why did the potheads start a fire in Southern Cal.?
Reminds me of 2011, fire at Rainbow Festival in Israel (Greenpeace organized) (before Rainbow==LSBTTQI) (and after Rainbow==symbol of the SHAEF)
“Environmentalists – don’t you just love ‘em? 42 dead, 15,000 acres of forest and its inhabitants
annihilated, but little Miss Holier Than Thou’s toilet paper ecologically disposed of.” (that quote is from a now defunct page and not in the following article but it wraps up things nicely.)
http://www.jpost.com/GreenIsrael/PEOPLEANDTHEENVIRONMENT/Article.aspx?id=195702
Realist:
More people – more fire bugs
– more potheads
– more campers
– more campfires
– more accidents
– more wildfires
–
Alarmist:
MORE CO2 = MORE WILDFIRES !!!!
Oh, i get it. Since AGW can’t be blamed anymore, the fire is all Conservatives’ fault for making arcane anti- pot laws.
philjourdan says:
January 17, 2014 at 11:49 am
Actually, the fire is “anti-global warming” as the men were:
The trio had been sitting around a campfire “trying to stay warm,” Staab said, when a “gust of wind came up.”
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-colby-fire-update-20140116,0,6021283.story#ixzz2qgehlQ3k
________________________
How quickly they forget… everything is due to global warming and that includes cold weather.
@Alan Robertson – My mistake. I forgot freezing to death was due to AGW.
“As long as they give up their driving license I’m fine with it.”
OK, but are you prepared to do the same for people who have a cocktail or two before dinner? How about cell phone users?
I’m not necessarily disagreeing, although there’s simply no contest when it comes to which is more debilitating to a driver’s skills…booze beats pot out by a long, long way.
philjourdan says:
January 17, 2014 at 12:09 pm
@Alan Robertson – My mistake. I forgot freezing to death was due to AGW.
___________________
Oh, but it is- it is.