In its recommendations, FAO calls for more comprehensive fire management and improved monitoring of wildfire emissions, underscoring that greenhouse gas emissions can perpetuate a dangerous feedback loop.

Focusing on mega-fires and demonizing large burns comes with its own set of risks, warned Keane. Large fires can sometimes be a good thing for the landscape -- as long as they don't endanger lives.

Click here to read the report.

Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500

3 Comments

1. 1. sault 02:00 PM 5/12/11

   This highlights one of the fast-feedbacks that make our current climate modeling efforts UNDERSTATE the impacts of human-caused climate disruption. These fires release millions of tons of CO2 into the air and leave the ground more vulnerable to desertification. This allows the Earth's atmosphere to trap even more heat and cause even more wildfires.
   
   The dynamic is even more pronounced as the Northern Hemisphere's permafrost becomes destabilized and releases megatons of methane. Over a 20 year period, each ton of methane is 100 times more potent than a ton of CO2 at trapping outgoing heat. We are already detecting huge spikes of methane outgassing from the world's permafrost and methane's greenhouse gas properties are not in dispute. The time for ignoring or denying this issue is over.

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2. 2. bobgeezer 01:45 AM 5/13/11

   And who are the idiots who deny global warming disasters caused by humans?
   
   Ostriches, willing to kill off our planet for political reasons, protecting major corporation's profits.
   
   We see more and more evidence of their ignorance every day: day after day after day . . .
   

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3. 3. NikFromNYC 04:19 PM 5/13/11

   Tide gauges refute alarmism: http://oi56.tinypic.com/11jsp5i.jpg
   So do thermometers: http://oi51.tinypic.com/357pvme.jpg
   So does the global average: http://i49.tinypic.com/2mpg0tz.jpg
   So do dozens of temperature reconstructions, e.g.: http://oi52.tinypic.com/2upvlvm.jpg
   So do serious left wing intellectuals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n92YenWfz0Y
   But at least psychopaths support it: http://oi54.tinypic.com/wrm3xc.jpg

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