Global Warming and Wildfire: Senate Hearing

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing Monday on science behind global warming and its influence on wildfire activity in the United States. Among the consequences of global warming, scientists are confident that wildfires will become more frequent and intense. Global warming is already decreasing the amount of winter snow and ice held in mountain reserves, which leads to reduced runoff and drier springs and summers.

Add to that more hot, dry days and all you need is a spark to ignite a fire. At least one study has already correlated increased fire activity in recent years to climate change. This season was the fourth straight, since 2004, in which at least 8 million acres of land burned. Before 2004, no fire season had resulted in more than 8 million acres of burning, according to statistics from the National Interagency Fire Center. Testifying will be:

• Ann Bartuska, deputy chief for research and development at the U.S. Forest Service
• Susan Conrad, national program leader for fire ecology research, Research, U.S. Forest Service
• Thomas Swetnam, director of the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research and professor of dendochronology at the University of Arizona
• John Helms, professor emeritus in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley

The following day, the committee will hold a hearing on "Green Jobs Created by Global Warming Initiatives" -- the idea that investing in renewable energy research and development, and setting regulations that spur innovation in the private sector will lead to a new generation of high-tech high paid jobs that develop the U.S. economy at the same time they reign in pollution linked to global warming. If that strategy fails, it looks like there will be plenty of jobs in the wildland firefighting sector.

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