Redding called 'ground zero' for climate change-driven wildfire

Jerry Hinkle has a message for Redding: Climate change is here.

If North State residents didn't already feel its presence, the effects of climate change became apparent in Shasta County on the afternoon of July 23, when the sparks from the rim of a blown truck tire ignited the Carr Fire, said Hinkle, Northern California Regional Coordinator for the Citizen's Climate Lobby.

Three days later that blaze and a fire tornado generating 145 mph winds blew into Redding, forcing nearly 40,000 people to flee and laying waste to more than a thousand homes.

"Unfortunately, folks in Redding are at ground zero for this," Hinkle said of the climate change that he says is helping to drive the increase in the number of acres burned by wildfire each year in California and across the U.S.

"Wildfire here has become an event and risk that must be addressed," he said.

In 2018 about 1.6 million acres were burned on fires managed by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the U.S. Forest Service, according to Cal Fire.

Nationwide, 8.5 million acres burned in 2018, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The average number of acres burned annually from 2008 to 2017 was 6.5 million acres, according to NIFC.

Hinkle is bringing his message on the effects climate change is having on wildfire this Friday during a presentation in Redding. The talk on wildfires and climate change is 7 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 1825 East St.

Joining Hinkle for the presentation is Dana Nuccitelli, an environmental scientist and climate journalist.

Doug Craig, who helped organize the event, said he has been trying for many years to get elected officials to acknowledge the effects of climate change.

Craig and Hinkle said to slow or reverse the effects of a warming climate the nation needs to move away from using fossil fuels.

"The planet is getting hotter as we burn fossil fuels and thicken the green house blanket in the troposphere, which means our region will grow hotter for years and decades to come," Craig said.

"That means loss of snow pack and more droughts and water shortages, and more extreme weather events, including floods and of course larger, more frequent, more costly and more severe wildfires," he said.

The Citizens Climate Lobby is urging Congress to pass a bill that would provide incentives to consumers to reduce the use of products that use coal and oil, Hinkle said.

This bill would put a fee on fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas. The fee would start at $15 per ton and grow by $10 per ton each year, according to the climate lobby. Money collected from the carbon fee would be allocated in equal shares every month to U.S. residents.

While scientists have documented climate change, President Trump and many other elected officials do not accept that climate change is caused by human activity.

Hinkle acknowledged that overcoming the political resistance to cutting back on fossil fuels will be difficult.

"The politics is tough because whenever you go up against a wealthy polluter it's going to be a challenge," he said.

While there is resistance from some elected officials, Hinkle's group isn't the only one sounding the alarm about climate change.

The Trump administration's own 2018 National Climate Assessment puts the blame for climate change on people. The report also says climate change has made fires worse in the West.

"In some regions, prolonged periods of high temperatures associated with droughts contribute to conditions that lead to larger wildfires and longer fire seasons," the report says.

"Evidence indicates that the human influence on climate has already roughly doubled the probability of extreme heat events such as the record-breaking summer heat experienced in 2011 in Texas and Oklahoma. The incidence of record-breaking high temperatures is projected to rise," the climate assessment says.

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