Arctic Ice and Wildfires

The Arctic Sea ice will have its second lowest extent on record this year:

Blue line = 2020

It is hard to guess when the Arctic will be ice free. The trend seems to have stalled since 2012.

If we assume that 2007 to 2012 was unusual then the downward trend points at 2030-40 before the Arctic is ice free in the summer.

The wildfire season has been severe this summer in some parts of the USA. The data seems to show that the area burned is generally increasing. For instance in Canada:

In the USA wildfires have been increasing recently but from a low base after the US progressively introduced control measures almost a century ago:

What has really changed is that there are far more people in fire-prone areas so the human cost has increased greatly.

The world is getting hotter, especially in the far north, and there are more droughts. There are going to be more fires, the ice is going to go.

The cause of all of these events is the increased population. It is obvious that if the world had less than a billion humans "man made" changes to land use, climate, resources, ecological footprint etc. would be far less. Everyone knows that the juggling act of keeping human interference with nature in check becomes ever more difficult as there are ever more people. This increase in difficulty occurs whether we are considering the poisoning of rivers by mining, agriculture etc. or the spread of urbanisation or the devastation of diversity. The juggling is ever more difficult. Everyone knows this but children like Greta Thunberg are siezed upon and exploited to tell us that the cure is to cross the Atlantic in a sailing boat rather than having fewer children.

14/9/2020

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