Outdoor Report for March 9, 2017, By the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: “Early Ice-out and Early Wildfire Season
While Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans in the state Legislature, the U.S. Congress, republican governors other U.S. states, plus the president himself, continue to not blame human activities fueled by fossil fuel burning as the cause of the currently accelerating rates of global temperature rises, the record high rates of sea level rise, the acidifying of the planet’s oceans, along with the famine refuge causing droughts in Africa and the Middle East, and the historic melting of ice and snow at the poles and the relentlessly melting of mountainous glaciers, caused mostly by:
excavating, processing and transporting coal, natural gas, auto, truck and ship motor fuels, jet fuel, especially fuels derived from processing and delivering Alberta, Canada, tar sands) and many other human activities that result in large scale emissions of greenhouse gas emissions: cement making, paving forests, meat production, poor waste disposal practices, sports competitions which require long distance travel by teams and fans and awards ceremonies, conventions and conferences that require people to travel long distances, and buying products from long distance markets (requiring distance travel (i.e., not buying local, … the continuing of what the global warming scientists determined to be the “business as usual” practices (above) is slowly but increasing getting worse and worse – with no end in site. Today’s children and those yet to be born will curse us all for this. Mark my words.
March 9, 2017 Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Outdoor Report (partial) follows:
Early ice-out and early wildfire season:
Snow is now gone from most areas of the state, with the exception of the far north, where a few inches remain in wooded areas. Very strong winds this week have taken ice out of many lakes in the south, including Monona and Mendota, which tied its record for second earliest opening — nearly a month earlier than average.
The high winds and loss of snow cover have also led to an early spring wildfire season, with more than 30 acres burning this week, including one fire near Eau Claire that resulted in the evacuation of some homes, but was contained before it burned any structures….
Authors of New UW and UCLA Collaborative Study: Global Warming To Increase Storm Intensity And Rain Volume
(Above) A section of Wisconsin Highway 13 is washed out after heavy rains, south of Highbridge in Ashland, Wis., on July 12. Jeff Peters / AP
Climate scientists have been telling us for awhile now in Wisconsin to get ready for warmer, wetter weather. As things heat up, more water is evaporated into the atmosphere, more energy is added to the system, and you get more rain. Last month, the author’s of a new collaborative study involving climatologists at UCLA and mathematicians at the University of Wisconsin said, in a radio interview with WORT-FM’s Brian standing, who is the host of the station’s Monday morning 8 O’Clock Buzz show, that Wisconsin, as well most other regions of the U.S., can expect much more rain as the atmosphere continues to warm directly resulting from rising greenhouse gas (GHGs) accumulations in the atmosphere over time, which are scientifically known to result from heavier rainfalls and more of them in the coming years, linked to the continuing buildup of human activity generated GHGs (from coal and natural gas burning in power plants, homes, businesses, etc,; and petroleum product burning in automobiles, trucks, jet liners, etc.) in our atmosphere under today’s “business as usual” economic forecast.
Prior to this study, scientists had not predicted the actual accumulation of rain in predicted future storms, measuring instead the increasing strength of storms under continuing global warming with rising GHG accumulations in the atmosphere. Under this study, the authors said a 100-year flood in Wisconsin and most other regions of the U.S. would be more likely to occur in 50 years or less years unless we change our ways, and that the 100-year flood would have a significantly greater volume of total rainfall accumulation than previous years, which has important implications for infrastructure capacities and locating residential, community and business developments.
Brian Standing spoke on February 27, 2017, with Professor David Neelin of the University of California Los Angeles Department of Atmospheric Science and with Professor Sam Stechmann at the University of Wisconsin Madison’s Department of Mathematics who collaborated on the study.
Hear interview and donate?) at WORT-FM.org.
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