Above, interview on MSNBC with Hawaii Governor Josh Green, who gave a grim warning about the intensity of the disaster this week on Maui. The former ER Doc said he wanted “to warn the entire Planet” about the catastrophic effects of climate extremes.
Interestingly, his comments were picked up and amplified by Fox News on the web.
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Sunday that global warming played a major role in the Maui wildfire that destroyed a historic town and has so far killed at least 93 people.
Green spoke about the devastation in the centuries-old town of Lahaina during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart,” describing the wildfire as a “fire hurricane” with gusting 80 mph winds and “1,000-degree heat creating fire cyclones going through buildings.”
“Everything is burnt to the ground in Lahaina,” the Democrat said, calling it a “war zone” that is “completely destroyed.”
Green attributed strong winds from Hurricane Dora, which passed far to the south of the island last week, and very dry drought conditions on Maui to the fast-moving blaze.
“When fire jumped from one spot to another – there were three or four fires going on at the same time – it got seeded very quickly with those 80 mph gusted winds,” he said. “And then the fire moved at essentially a mile per minute, 60 mph down through the community.”
“That’s what a fire hurricane is going to look like in the era of global warming,” Green said.
Green said global warming is “very real for us and everywhere,” issuing a call for people to do what they can to stop and reverse its effects.
If wildfire is natural for Lahaina, why are the buildings that burned to the ground over a century old? A 200 year old church burned down the other day. What was it doing there, if wildfire was natural for Lahaina?
Of course this reflects global warming. Hawaii is drying out as Greece is drying out, and largely for the same reason. And both are developing wildfires that are literally pushing their tourists into the ocean. Understanding this is not rocket science.
Lahaina and Kihei are in rain shadows. (Wailea gets between 0 and 13 inches of rain a year.)
This situation predates the Industrial Revolution and even the first human habitation. Even the agriculture in the middle of the island was irrigated by a series of canals that ran around from the wet side of Haleakala.
https://waileaekahivillage.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/weather-map.jpg
To be fair to the authorities this was a fire well out of their experience. Yes there have been fires in Hawaii before, but this was a far different fire.