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GUEST: Brenda Ekwurzel, Climate Scientist with Union of Concerned Scientists

Cooler temperatures and moist air over this past weekend allowed firefighters to gain the upper hand on several Southern California wildfires. More than a dozen of the fires have been fully surrounded, with others being at least 50 percent contained. Firefighters remain cautiously optimistic, however, as weather forecasters predict that warm gusty Santa Ana winds may return in the next week. The damage from the fires caused half a million people to evacuate their homes as 500,000 acres were destroyed across seven Southern California counties. The death toll from the inferno is at least seven, with four undocumented migrants found dead at the US – Mexico border. President Bush declared the California wildfires, which ravaged the Santa Barbara foothills down to the Mexican border, a “major disaster.” Amy Luers, California’s climate manager for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said of the wildfires that “while we can’t attribute these specific events to global warming, these are consistent with a trend of increasing wildfire activity throughout the west that has been linked to climate.” She warned further that if global warming emissions are not cut, wildfires could significantly change the landscapes of the west.

For more information, visit www.ucsusa.org/