Nancy Pelosi has been notably tepid on green legislation – so are the Democrats serious about fighting climate change?
With hundreds of thousands of Americans forced to evacuate their homes in the western US, Donald Trump hasn’t said a word about the wildfires blazing across multiple states in nearly three weeks.
Related: Oregon fires force hundreds of thousands to flee as deaths rise
Continue reading...Dozens of people are missing and at least 23 people are believed to have been killed as historic wildfires in the western US forced evacuations, stretched fire crews thin and spawned misinformation.
Residents of Portland, Oregon, awoke on Friday to air thick with smoke pollution that dimmed the sun and turned the skies blood-orange red. Hundreds of firefighters are battling two large wildfires that threatened to merge near the most populated part of Oregon, including the suburbs of Portland, and the governor said dozens of people are missing in other parts of the state.
Continue reading...In Molalla and other western towns, fear, uncertainty and disinformation gripped residents as hundreds of thousands in the state evacuate
Hundreds of thousands of people in Oregon were ordered to leave their homes on Thursday as wildfires encroached on their properties. The evacuations clogged highways, emptied entire towns and sparked confusion in a state that has not grappled with wildfires of this size before.
Large-scale evacuations in the state began within the metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon’s largest city. Clackamas county, home to some 420,000 people in the metro’s south, was already under varying levels of fire alert when officials on Thursday afternoon told residents of the city of Molalla to leave.
Continue reading...Footage shot over Eagle Point shows flattened residential areas after nearly 100 major wildfires ripped through the US west. At least three people have been killed in Oregon with the governor, Kate Brown, warning that the state faces further hardship as authorities battle to contain the blazes
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Washington state’s governor, Jay Inslee, said today that the fires in the state have burned nearly 937 sq miles (2,426km).
“We’ve had this trauma all over Washington,” Inslee said, KHQ-TV reported. The governor was touring the farm town of Malden, which is 35 miles south of Spokane: “But this is the place where the whole heart of the town was torn out.”
Stunned residents of the small Oregon town of Phoenix walked through a scene of devastation Thursday after one of the state’s many wildfires wiped out much of their community, including a mobile home park, houses and businesses, the AP reports on the ground.
There were flames across the street from me, flames to the right of me, flames to the left of me. I just watched everything burn.”
Burned out cars, charred lawn ornaments, rubble. That’s what’s left of this Phoenix mobile home park, which covers abt 20 acres. Flames and smoldering embers still visible here. Everything is blackened by fire.
This was home to abt 300 people. pic.twitter.com/DrDobLKVev
Mayor Chris Luz talks about the loss of Puck’s Donuts. pic.twitter.com/4qz2gLy9Jb
Continue reading...More than 500,000 people in Oregon have been forced to evacuate as unprecedented wildfires rage across the state, amounting to more than 10% of the population, authorities said Thursday.
Wildfires searing through the American west have killed at least 15 people, leveled entire neighborhoods and forced stretched firefighting crews to make tough decisions about where to deploy.
Continue reading...More than 85 significant wildfires are burning across the west, where a record 2.5m acres have been destroyed in the latest batch of blazes. At least seven people have died and the dense plumes of smoke have turned skies red and amber
Continue reading...More than 85 significant wildfires are burning across the west, where a record 2.5m acres have been destroyed in the latest batch of blazes. At least seven people have died and the dense plumes of smoke have turned skies red and amber
Continue reading...Region sees amber skies while Washington state faces more acres burned in a day than typically burn in a year
Large, fast-moving fires raged on across the American west on Wednesday, destroying hundreds of homes in the Pacific north-west and sending a dense plume of smoke that turned skies amber across parts of the region.
Related: California, Oregon and Washington battle dozens of fires – live updates
Continue reading...Dozens of blazes continue to rage in California with a record 2.2m acres burned. Bay Area residents awoke on Wednesday to orange skies
Continue reading...About a million hectares (2.3m acres) have been burned so far in California as uncontrolled fires driven by high winds and unprecedented temperatures rage across the west coast of the US. The state governor, Gavin Newsom, has said he has 'no patience for climate change deniers' as the experience of the past few days was proof
Altogether, 721,000 people could be affected by these preventive measures, posing significant risks to the physically vulnerable
Hundreds of thousands of Californians are bracing for preventive power shutoffs, as wildfires have burned a record 2m acres across the state and the pandemic keeps many confined to their homes.
The first wave of power shutoffs started late Monday night, with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) cutting power to 172,000 homes and businesses in 22 counties in northern California because of strong winds and dry conditions in the forecast. The utility also planned to shut off power to customers in Kern county, north of Los Angeles, starting Tuesday afternoon.
Continue reading...Record set early in the season as firefighters battle to contain several wildfires ahead of forecast hot, dry winds
Wildfires have burned more than 2m acres (809,000 hectares) in California this year, setting a state record even as crews battled dozens of growing blazes in sweltering temperatures Monday that strained the electrical grid and threatened power outages for millions.
The previous high was 1.96m acres (793,184 hectares) burned in 2018. the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, began tracking the numbers in 1987.
Continue reading...A fire in California that has burned more than 7,000 acres was caused by a 'pyrotechnic device used at a gender reveal party', according to the the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Almost 12,500 firefighters are battling 22 major fires across the state, according to Cal Fire
Continue reading...The California governor, Gavin Newsom, declared a state of emergency in five counties on Sunday due to wildfires. It was prompted by the Creek fire that started on Friday night, forcing evacuations and road closures in the Fresno area
Continue reading...California is sweltering under a record-breaking heatwave this holiday weekend, with dangerous conditions that have sparked several new wildfires and raised widespread public health concerns.
Triple-digit temperatures have spread over much of the state, including a record-high of 125F (52C) in Death Valley on Saturday. In southern California, Malibu authorities reported that one hiker died due to heat while on a trail in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Continue reading...The state sees us as safe enough to handle emergencies – but it refuses to provide a pathway to work after release
The wildfires burning across California have put a national spotlight on the incarcerated firefighters the state depends on to fight these blazes.
But while state leaders scramble to backfill vacant positions on the firefighting lines, it’s important to remember the backdrop that helped create the crisis in the first place. This is the result of policies that value the preservation of cheap labor over a system that benefits communities and offers incarcerated individuals a path to freedom and a fair shot at employment.
Continue reading...Fire department said 27 firefighters were being supported by nine fire engines, two planes and a helicopter
A wildfire has broken out near the ruins of the bronze age stronghold of Mycenae in Greece, prompting the evacuation of visitors to the archaeological site.
According to local media, the fire started on Sunday near the tomb of Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae who was killed during the Trojan war.
Continue reading...Report finds climate change ‘clearly played a role’ in conditions that led up to Australia’s 2019-2020 fires, which were so extreme, traditional firefighting methods often failed
Last summer’s bushfire disaster was so unusual that traditional firefighting methods, such as hazard reduction burning, failed in some instances, an inquiry into the crisis heard.
The final report of the New South Wales bushfire inquiry, published on Tuesday, said the 2019-20 bushfire season brought fires in forested regions on a scale not seen in recorded history in Australia.
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Northern California health officials are telling residents to stay inside, to protect themselves from the poor air quality caused by the wildfire smoke. But for many, that’s not an option.
A vulnerable, essential labor force - the more than 381,000 agriculture workers in California - already disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic keeps working as others flee and take shelter.
The smoke is thick where farm workers were laboring harvesting strawberries in the Salinas area. Thank you @PocketNihilist for sending us this video documenting the hard work in difficult conditions farm workers do so we can have food on our tables. #WeFeedYou pic.twitter.com/O6r0sVcQOO
Related: ‘An impossible choice’: farmworkers pick a paycheck over health despite smoke-filled air
The three wildfires burning around the San Francisco Bay Area have grown to a total size larger than the state of Rhode Island.
Surveying the SCU Lightning Complex -- this is now the third largest wildfire in CA history. pic.twitter.com/MKhVD8u48U
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