Coal: Global warming equals more fires - Ravalli Republic

Exporting hundreds of millions of tons Montana coal to Asia will cause more forest fires in Montana. The Independent Record (Helena’s daily paper) recently (Aug. 19) published an editorial advocating for more coal trains carrying coal from strip mines in eastern Montana and Wyoming, through most of Montana’s major cities, and onwards to coal plants in Asia.

The editors saw few downsides to this plan. But they forgot entirely to mention the impacts on the global climate that will result when the coal is burned in Asia. One of myriad negative impacts of aggravated climate change will be increased warming, and consequently increased forest fires in the American West.

The National Academies of Science recently issued a report, “Advancing the Science of Climate Change” (2010), in which they wrote: “Large and long-duration forest fires have increased fourfold over the past 30 years in the American West. Forest fires are influenced by many factors, including climate change, but warming has increased the length of the fire season by more than two months in some locations, and the increasing size of wildfires can be attributed in part to earlier snowmelt, temperature changes, and drought.”

As more carbon pollution is emitted into the global atmosphere â€" i.e., when Montana and Wyoming coal is burned in Asia â€" “climate change will lead to an increase in the . . . frequency of heat waves . . . and wildfire.”

So, if the IR tells the whole story about coal, the list of downsides will be considerably longer.

Janet McMillan,

Greenough