Climate Change Porn – 15: A 25-Year Average, times Six

An aerial view of the Birch Creek Fire complex

For the past few weeks, dry and warm weather have fueled large forest fires across Canada’s remote Northwest Territories. The extent of those fires is well above average for the year to-date, and is in line with climate trends of more fires burning in the northern reaches of the globe.

The amount of acres burned in the Northwest Territories is six times greater than the 25-year average to-date according to data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center.

UPDATE: It’s worse to our south, as noted by Sightline:

This week, the LA Times reported on the wildfire raging in Washington State, describing “tornadoes of fire” engulfing a small town. It’s a scary picture and a bleak reminder that global warming is amplifying certain kinds of destruction here, now, right in our backyard:

The Carlton Complex fire will probably go down as the biggest conflagration in Washington state history, torching about 240,000 acres and counting. Pateros, one of Washington’s littlest towns, was no match for its fury. An estimated 20% of the buildings in the city, population 600 or so, have been destroyed. There is no electricity, no drinking water.

UPDATE: The Dish runs a post on The Demographics Of Denialism .

Observations:

Climate-change skepticism appears to be especially common in Anglophone countries.
The English-language media in three of these four countries are linked together by a single individual: Rupert Murdoch. … the conglomerates that he heads are responsible for quite a lot of English language climate skepticism and denial.
People who live on coastlines also tend to take climate change more seriously than those who live inland.
People more familiar with science are better at coming up with explanations to defend whatever conclusions their cultural group has reached.