First melting glaciers, now mega-fires

I've always hinged any possibility of global warming or serious climate change on the fact that most of the glaciers, worldwide, and the 2 ice caps are melting and shrinking and have been for some couple or few decades, at least. I didn't put it on any increased cold or heat here and there on the planet, for fear it was wrong. I wanted to put it more on the "big picture."

Now, another "big picture" view and concern. This from The Guardian in England:

New Mexico's record-setting wildfires deepen trend of devastating 'megafires'

Unrelenting blazes are shaping up to be even more crippling than last year, leaving residents doubtful of any coming relief

"Super-sized and highly destructive wildfires have become a regular occurrence in America, especially in the south-west, because of drought, climate change and human interference with the natural landscape.

Last year saw record-breaking fires in Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico. The early start to this year's fire season has sharpened fears of a sequel: with more acres and homes lost, and bigger budget crises for federal and state governments fighting the disasters.

"Our fire seasons are starting earlier and lasting longer throughout the country," said Tim Sexton, wildfire research director for the US forest service. "When I first started, a three-day fire or a four-day fire was a long fire and now a month-long fire is not that uncommon."

Low-intensity wildfires are part of the natural landscape of the south-west but Ta study by fire scientists last month charted a disturbing new trend of large and devastating fires, consuming record areas of land and burning for weeks. By early Friday, the fire was just 10% contained, the forest service reported.

The fire now raging in south-western New Mexico started near the Whitewater creek inside the Gila national forest on 16 May and was ignited in an event that occurs regularly in nature: a lightning strike. In this instance, there were initially two separate lightning strikes some distance apart."

So up to now, it's just been that the glaciers and poles--North and South--to me, that have been melting. Now, it's a whole new, additional concern. "Megafires" ravaging thousands of acres of Earth and forest and land, from early in a season, deep into Summer and Fall, on lots of the 7 continents, repeatedly.

The fact is, folks, come on, we pretty much know that the ways that humankind, the planet over, exists is unsustainable, don't we? The way we pollute? The way we discard? The numbers of us all? And I don't just mean the US. Or China, alone. All of us. We're killing plants and trees and insects and who knows what. Surely we accept and agree that this isn't sustainable. It isn't a Left vs. Right issue or Republican vs. Democrat or anything else remotely like that. This is talking about how we all live.

I think we pretty much know we need to change, don't we?

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/01/new-mexico-wildfires-devastating-megafires