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WEBVTT HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH IT. WHILE SEARCHERS WERE LOOKING FOR VICTIMS OF THE CAMP FIRE AND SURVIVORS WERE REELING FROM THEIR EXPERIENCE, GOVERNOR JERRY BROWN POINTED TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING AS FACTORS. >> THE BEST SCIENCE IS TELLING US THAT DRYNESS, WARMTH, DROUGHT, ALL OF THOSE THINGS ARE GOING TO INTENSIFY. KEVIN: SO DID THE MAYOR OF SACRAMENTO. >> WE NEED TO LOOK NO FURTHER THAN WHAT HAPPENED AN HOUR AND HALF FROM HERE IN BUTTE COUNTY AND HERE AT ICE -- AND PARADISE TO KNOW THE PERIL OF NOT AGGRESSIVELY ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE COULD -- CHANGE GOOD KEVIN: BUT A PROFESSOR OF ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES WHO RESEARCHES GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIENT CHAINS -- CLIMATE CHANGE SAYS THAT MOTHER PLAYED A ROLE IN THE CAMP FIRE. >> IN A CENTURY, IT MIGHT CONTRIBUTE TO FIRES. UNTIL NOW, IT IS NATURAL VARIABILITY AND NATURAL EFFECTS. IF YOU LOOK AT THE FACTUAL INFORMATION, IT REALLY DOESN’T APPEAR THAT GLOBAL WARMING HAS MUCH TO DO WITH THE CAMP FIRE OR THE ONE COUNTRY FIRES FROM LAST YEAR. KEVIN: THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CLASSIFIES GLOBAL WARMING AS ONE ASPECT OF CLIMATE CHANGE, AND CLIMATE CHANGE IS MEASURED THROUGH CHANGES IN WIND PATTERNS, RAIN OR SNOW FALL, AND TEMPERATURE. FOR INSTANCE, ON THE DAY THE CAMP FIRE STARTED, THE WINDS WERE MEASURED AT 32 MILES PER HOUR WITH GUSTS UP TO 52. WHEN YOU LOOK BACK AT THE WIND RECORDS, THERE HAVE BEEN SIMILAR NORTHEASTERLY WINDS 508 TIMES IN THE PAST 15 YEARS. HE ALSO SAYS THE LATEST RESEARCH SHOWS CHANGES IN AIR PRESSURE WILL RE -- WEAKEN SANTA ANA AND DIABLO WHEN’S GOOD -- WINDS. >> PROBABLY THEY WILL WEAKEN UNDER GLOBAL WARMING. KEVIN: ANOTHER ASPECT IS DRYNESS. HE LOOKED AT DATA FROM A WEATHER STATION THAT SHOWED FEW MOISTURE CHANGES OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS. HE SAID THE PATTERN IS CLEAR, FUELS ARE NOT GETTING PROGRESSIVELY DRIER, AND EVEN IF TEMPERATURES ARE RISING, IT WOULD NOT MATTER BECAUSE CALIFORNIA IS HISTORICALLY DRY IN THE FALL. >> PEOPLE THROW THESE HANDWAVING ARGUMENTS ABOUT, THE GLOBAL WARMING WILL MAKE THINGS WARMER AND DRIER, AND THAT MAY BE TRUE, THAT IT IS PLENTY DRY ENOUGH TO BURN RIGHT NOW SO IT IS NOT A FACTOR. KEVIN: AS FOR RAIN, HE SAYS DATA GOING BACK 90 YEARS OF SHOWS AUGUST TO OCTOBER PRECIPITATION IN THE CAMP FIRE AREA IS TYPICALLY LIGHT WITH WHITE VARIATION AND NO OBVIOUS TREND. >> IF YOU PLOT THE PRECIPITATION FOR THE FALL, WHICH I HAVE DONE ON MY BLOG, IT HAS NOT CHANGED MUCH OVER THE LAST 30, 50 YEARS. THERE’S NO REAL INDICATION THAT, FOR INSTANCE, SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER RAINFALL, HAS DROPPED BY A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT IN THE LAST SEVERAL DECADES. KEVIN: HE SAYS POINTING TO GLOBAL WARMING OR CLIMATE CHANGE TAKES ATTENTION AWAY FROM OTHER ISSUES THAT COULD HAVE AN IMMEDIATE IMPACTS. >> WE HAVE TO MOVE PEOPLE AWAY FROM THE WILDLAND INTERFACE. PEOPLE ARE LIVING WHERE THEY SHOULD NOT LIVE. WE NEED BETTER WARNING SYSTEMS. I COULD KEEP GOING ON, BUT THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS WE NEED TO DO THAT COULD SAVE HUGE NUMBERS OF LIVES AND PROPERTY NOW. IF YOU BLAME IT ALL ON GLOBAL WARM

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While search and rescue crews were looking for victims of the Camp Fire and survivors were reeling from their experiences, Gov. Jerry Brown pointed to climate change and global warming as factors in the fire."The best science is telling us that dryness, warmth, drought, they are going to intensify," Brown said at a news conference. "Predictions by some scientists are that we've already gone up one degree. I think we can expect a half a degree, which is catastrophic over the next 10 to 12 years."Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg also pointed to climate change."We need to look no further than what happened an hour and a half from here in Butte County and in Paradise to know the peril of not aggressively addressing climate change," Steinberg said. However, Cliff Mass, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington and weather modelling expert, said neither global warming nor climate change played a significant role in the deadly Camp Fire. "I mean if you really look at the factual information, it really doesn't appear that global warming has much to do with the Camp Fire or with the Wine Country fires from last year," Mass said.The federal government classifies global warming as one aspect of climate change, which can be measured through changes in wind, rain, snowfall and temperature. For instance, on the day the Camp Fire started, the winds were measured at 32 miles per hour with gusts up to 52 miles per hour.When Mass reviewed the wind records for the area, he found there have been similar northeasterly winds 508 times in the past 15 years.Mass also said the latest global warming modelling shows changes in air pressure that should weaken Santa Ana and Diablo winds, two of the regular wind events that propel fires."There is absolutely no reason to think the winds are connected with global warming. In fact, probably they'll weaken under global warming," Mass said.Another fire factor includes surface dryness, how dry are the vegetation and grasses in the region.Mass looked at data from the Jarbo Gap weather station, which showed fuel moisture changes over the past five years.He said the pattern is clear, fuels are not getting progressively drier. He added that even if temperatures are rising, it wouldn't matter because California is historically dry in fall and fuel moisture levels have dropped to 3 percent for years."People throw these hand-waving arguments about the global warming will make things warmer and drier, well that may be true, but there are plenty dry enough to burn right now. So, that's really not a factor," Mass said.As for rain, Mass looked at data going back 90 years which shows August to October precipitation in the Camp Fire area is typically light with wide variation and no obvious trend."If you actually plot the precipitation for the fall, which I've done in my blog that really hasn't changed that much over the last 30 to 50 years," Mass said. "So, there's no real indication that, for instance, September and October rainfall has dropped by a significant amount over the last several decades, so that doesn't seem to pan out."Mass's research contradicts a recent federal report that warns California wildfires are worsening because of climate change. The National Climate Assessment, which was written before the November wildfires, says warming-charged extremes "have already become more frequent, intense, widespread or of long duration."| RELATED | Federal climate report warns of worsening US disastersThe recent Northern California wildfires can be attributed to climate change, but there was less of a connection to those in Southern California, said co-author William Hohenstein of the U.S. Department of Agriculture."A warm, dry climate has increased the areas burned over the last 20 years," he said.The Lower 48 states have warmed 1.8 degrees since 1900 with 1.2 degrees in the last few decades, according to the report. By the end of the century, the U.S. will be 3 to 12 degrees hotter depending on how much greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, the report warns.The trend of increasing temperatures, above and beyond what California usually sees, is worrisome, said Helene Margolis, an environmental health specialist at UC Davis and the lead author of the Southwest section of the report."For example, more frequent heatwaves," she said. "Wwhen the heatwaves do occur, they’re going to be over larger geographic areas, longer durations. So, instead of two or three days, they’re going to be up to weeks long."While Mass believes the planet is overall getting warmer and that it is a serious threat to the planet, he said pointing to global warming or climate change for California's wildfires takes the attention away from other issues that need to be examined to protect people."We have to move people away from the wildland interface," Mass said. "We have people living where they shouldn't live. We need to deal with that. We need to have better warning systems. I can keep on going on but there's a lot of things we need to do that could save huge numbers of lives and property now. If you blame it all on global warming, then you're not going to do these things that really are important."