Helping Flannigan Connect The Dots

Connecting the dots means assume you know the answer, and then use a small amount of data to back up your predetermined conclusion. Toss the huge bulk of evidence which contradicts what you are trying to prove.

“Slave Lake is not a one-off, we’re going to see more communities at risk in the future, whether it’s Quebec or Ontario or Manitoba or B.C.,” says Mike Flannigan, a professor with the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta. “We’ve seen the fires in Kamloops and Kelowna back in 2003 and now 2011 in Slave Lake.”

Those fires moved with a speed and intensity that caught firefighters off guard and proved impossible to contain. They were cousins to the so-called mega-fires that tore through Australia in 2009 and Russia in 2010, devastating huge regions and killing or injuring hundreds of people.

Like climate change itself, this is a global problem.

“It’s difficult to say that an individual fire is the result of climate change, but what I’m saying is that we are seeing more activity because of climate change,” says Flannigan, just one of the scientists connecting the dots.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/

Dr. Flannigan might be interested to know about a fast moving fire which happened in 1871.

The Argus   23 December 1871

http://trove.nla.gov.au

About Tony Heller

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6 Responses to Helping Flannigan Connect The Dots

  1. Lance says:

    He should also find out from the RCMP who started the fires in the townsite….I believe that is still under investigation…

  2. John B., M.D. says:

    The Chicago Fire was also in 1871. They blamed a cow back then, but I suppose we can blame the evil fossil fuel in the lamp that the cow kicked over.

  3. Robert of Ottawa says:

    Oh good grief. Wildfires are a part of the Canadian experience.

  4. Andy DC says:

    Is there any uptrend in acres burned?

  5. Eric Simpson says:

    Interesting I spent a fair amount of time reading about the Peshtigo fire, and 2 days ago I used it in a hotair comment regarding the polls showing that Obama is down in Wisconsin:

    In some disaster films or stories it’s interesting when you see the preliminary signs, the little omens of doom, that the unsuspecting characters don’t realize the significance.
    A true story is The Great Peshtigo Fire, that happened in Wisconsin actually, in 1871 on the very same night as the Chicago Fire. A couple thousand were killed, out of population of about 3000. An incredible fire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peshtigo_Fire.
    Anyway, it’s the little billowing puffs of smoke in the distance, the faint crackling sounds from a far, that foretold the fate of a 19th century town that would soon be fully engulfed in a firestorm of flames.
    I like to think, though we should resist overconfidence, maybe this and some other polls are like these preliminary omens… foretelling a disaster that looms for Obama.

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