"Studies: Wildfires Worse Due To Global Warming"

"WASHINGTON -- The devastating wildfires scorching Southern California offer a glimpse of a warmer and more fiery future, according to scientists and federal and international reports.

In the past three months, at least three different studies and reports have warned that wildfires are getting bigger, that man-made climate change is to blame, and it's only going to get worse with more fires starting earlier in the year. While scientists are reluctant to blame global warming for any specific fire, they have been warning for years about how it will lead to more fires and earlier fire seasons.

'The fires in California and here in Arizona are a clear example of what happens as the Earth warms, particularly as the West warms, and the warming caused by humans is making fire season longer and longer with each decade,' said University of Arizona geoscientist Jonathan Overpeck. 'It's certainly an example of what we'll see more of in the future.'"

Seth Borenstein reports for the Associated Press May 18, 2014.

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