A team of researchers from the Institute of the Environment
at the University of California analyzed data for the last 105 years and found
that high-elevation California forests fires have seldom happened in the past.
Warming
temperatures associated with climate change may be increasing tree density in
the high, subalpine forests, building up the amount of fuel in those forests
while also reducing its moisture content, the researchers suggested.
2015 has been an above-average year for wildfires in
California, as the state continues to bake in an unprecedented drought. Gov. Jerry Brown described his state as a "tinderbox" and declared a state of emergency. The
number of acres burned has topped 100,000, more than twice the average of the
past five years and more than burned in all of 2014. Read more at http://www.motherjones.com/
