There are 90 major wildfires burning in 13 western states

From an Article by Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams, September 11, 2020

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown sounded alarm Thursday that the wildfires ravaging the west are “a bellwether of the future”—a warning that came as half a million people were forced to evacuate her state and become “temporary climate refugees.”

Thousands of firefighters in Oregon are currently battling 36 fires that have scorched nearly 900,000 acres. State officials said Thursday that 500,000 of Oregon’s 4.2 million residents have been forced to evacuate, “and that number continues to grow.”

“Half a million Oregonians are temporary climate refugees (and many of them have lost their homes for good),” author and climate activist Bill McKibben tweeted Friday.

Record wildfires have been devastating other western states as well, including California and Washington, with at least 23 people dead as a result of the blazes.

“One hundred large fires have burned more than 4.5 million acres in 12 states,” the National Interagency Fire Center announced Friday. “Evacuation orders are in place for residents near 42 large fires across the West.”

While President Donald Trump has remained silent about the fires for several weeks, climate activists have pointed to the events as further evidence lawmakers must take urgent climate action including passing the Green New Deal.

In a Thursday tweet, Brown put the wildfires in the context of the climate crisis as well. “I wish the 2020 wildfires were an anomaly—but this will not be a one-time event. Unfortunately, it is a bellwether of the future. We are seeing the devastating effects of climate change in Oregon, on the entire West Coast, and throughout the world,” he wrote.

Brown’s assessment is bolstered by a new resource from the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The science group released an infographic stating that “wildfires are getting worse,” causing more damage, and are fueled by the climate crisis.

The group noted that “ecologically-sound forest and fire management could help limit fire risks” in the near-term. “But in the long-term, climate action is the best tool we have,” UCS said. “When we reduce global warming emissions, we slow the growth of climate risks, including wildfire. Until then, summers will continue getting hotter, forests will get drier, and more and more people will face the threat of wildfire.”

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Climate conditions in the western states are extreme

IHS Global Insight: Study of Jobs and Job Growth

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Data Seconded by EmploymentCrossing Job Research Data

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Job search data at Employment Crossing affirms the jobs trend emphasized by the IHS Global Insight report. (The report was funded by the oil and gas industry).

PWWEB News, December 26, 2012

A newly released study by IHS Global Insight claims that unconventional oil and gas production have become an engine of job creation and economic growth.

According to the report, America’s New Energy Future – The Unconventional Oil and Gas Revolution and the US Economy, shale energy has created at least 576,000 jobs in Texas, 102,600 jobs in Pennsylvania, 96,500 jobs in California, 78,900 jobs in Louisiana, and 77,600 jobs in Colorado. The report also claims that by 2020, Louisiana and Colorado would be displaced from their position in the unconventional oil and gas sector by Oklahoma and Ohio. The report was published in December and is co-sponsored by the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy.

The IHS report claims that already in 2012, employment in the entire unconventional oil and gas production sectors have added more than 1.7 million jobs to the economy. This number is expected to grow up to 2.5 million jobs by 2015, and 3 million jobs by 2020.

According to the IHS direct employment in the sector consists of about 20% of the jobs actually resulting from unconventional oil and natural gas activity while the rest is contributed by indirect and induced employment.

Job search data at Employment Crossing affirms the jobs trend emphasized by the IHS report.

Right now, as of 26th December, 2012, EmploymentCrossing lists about 50,766 job openings in Texas, out of which 7,863 jobs were in the oil and gas sector. However, a great number of the jobs in the sector, which varied from legal jobs, engineering jobs, and blue-collar jobs to accounting jobs were not directly into production of oil and gas, but indirectly supported by the industry or induced by it.

Pennsylvania shows about 75,158 total job openings on EmploymentCrossing, out of which 904 current jobs were related with oil and gas production though only 99 current openings had to do directly with the production of gas and oil. Similarly, California shows about 210,575 current job openings on EmploymentCrossing, out of which 1,569 oil and gas related jobs were there, though there were only 142 current openings in work directly in oil and gas production.

Speaking on the seeming anomaly about numbers, Harrison Barnes, the CEO of EmploymentCrossing said, “Live job openings in the oil and gas sector on job boards always remains few in number, because they are filled usually within days, and cease to be listed on EmploymentCrossing. However, the ratio of job distribution in the gas and oil sector as highlighted by the IHS report is very valid, because, as job openings listed on EmploymentCrossing show, about 20% of the jobs are directly into oil and gas production lines and 80% are indirect jobs associated with the industry. For example jobs of analytics, consultants or the jobs of attorneys with oil and gas experience would not be categorized directly under oil and gas jobs as they are not working at production lines.”

The original version of the above article is on the  PRWeb Internet site.