Environmental Journalist Bill McKibben on the Links Between Global Warming & the California Wild Fires

by via Democracy Now

Tue, Oct 23, 2007 7:41AM

Tuesday, October 23, 2007 : "This is the kind of disaster we see more and more of as we begin to change the basic physics and chemistry of the planet we live on," says McKibben, who is organizing the Nov. 3 Step It Up National Day of Climate Action.

What does global warming have to do with the fires ranging in southern California? More than 500,000 people in San Diego County have been ordered to evacuate. Over 900 homes have already been destroyed. At least one person has died in the fires. Another 37 people have been reported injured including 17 firefighters. The fires extend from the Mexican border to Santa Barbara. The most devastating fires were in San Diego County. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency.

Bill McKibben, leading environmentalist and one of the leading forces behind Step It Up. In 1989, he wrote the book “The End of Nature”, one of the first books to describe global warming as an emerging environmental crisis. His latest book is “Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future.”