{"id":2018940,"date":"2023-09-01T03:03:02","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T07:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/retcon-climate-science-blames-humans-for-fires-13000-years-ago\/"},"modified":"2023-09-01T03:10:44","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T07:10:44","slug":"retcon-climate-science-blames-humans-for-fires-13000-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/retcon-climate-science-blames-humans-for-fires-13000-years-ago\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate science now attributes the occurrence of fires 13,000 years ago to human activity."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fretcon-climate-science-blames-humans-for-fires-13000-years-ago%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2018940&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<h2>The Blame Game:\u2064 Humans and Wildfires<\/h2>\n<p>The New York Times proclaimed in \u200ba recent <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20230817192209\/https:\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/08\/17\/science\/climate-paleontology-mammals.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a> that humans caused catastrophic wildfires in California, \u200bleading to\u2064 a large and\u2063 tragic loss of life. The author seemed to\u200c blame these fires on man-made climate\u2063 change and pointed to evidence of humanity\u2019s negative effect on the environment by\u200b citing a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cdc-exposed-inflated-covid-deaths-by-1600-throughout-the-election-violated-multiple-federal-laws-peer-reviewed-study-findsstate-local-governments-must-act\/\" title=\"CDC Exposed: Inflated Covid Deaths By 1600% Throughout The Election, \u201cViolated Multiple Federal Laws\u201d Peer-Reviewed Study Finds\u2026State, Local Governments Must Act\">peer-reviewed study<\/a> \u200bin \u200ba <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/professors-peer-reviewed-paper-on-adolescent-trans-trend-pulled-over-lgbt-activists-complaints\/\" title=\"Professor's paper on adolescent trans trend retracted due to LGBT activists' complaints.\">prestigious academic journal<\/a>.\u2063 The science is\u2063 clear,\u200d the\u200b article argues: Human \u200dbeings caused one of history\u2019s great tragedies through their careless disregard for the environment.<\/p>\n<p>But the cited study is based on megafauna evidence gathered at \u200dLa Brea Tar Pits \u2014 from 13,000 years \u2064ago. According to the NYT author, \u2062scientists have \u201cconcluded that the disappearance of\u2062 \u2026 large mammals in this region \u2026 was linked to rising temperatures and increased fire activity spurred by people.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>The Past and the Present<\/h3>\n<p>The extinction\u200c event highlighted in \u200cthis article happened approximately\u200d 12,800\u2063 years before the Industrial \u200bRevolution\u2064 began belching supposedly pollutive carbon into our supposedly fragile atmosphere. Nevertheless, the Times article\u200b appears to undauntedly equate the past with\u2064 the present.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According\u200c to the\u200c report, the\u2064 authors of \u2062the\u200d study used a computer model \u2014 \u201csimilar to\u200d the ones\u2062 that\u200c forecast trends in the\u200d stock market\u201d \u2014 \u2063to determine humanity\u2019s\u200c role in the fires\u200c 13,000 years ago. \u200bThey allegedly found humans to be the \u201cprimary drivers\u201d \u2014 both by\u2063 direct ignition (i.e. campfires that got out of control, and other causes), and \u200dby overhunting herbivores, \u2062which led to underbrush growth that became fuel for wildfires.<\/p>\n<p>The study\u2064 itself, recently\u200b published and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/raging-wildfires-may-doomed-californias-ancient-megamammals-tar-pit-fossils-reveal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">discussed in an essay<\/a> in <em>Science<\/em>, \u201cties together the two leading\u200c hypotheses: \u201chuman activity and climate\u200d change\u201d \u2063with fire as the \u201ckey mediator.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/science.abo3594\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">study<\/a> \u2064 seems to land on \u200chumans as the main cause\u200d of these fires, which, in\u2063 conjunction with a changing climate, led to an environmental \u200b\u201cstate shift.\u201d The lead author of the referenced study, \u200cF. Robin O\u2019Keefe, said, \u201cWe implicate \u2064humans as being the primary cause of the \u2062tipping point.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<h3>The Overkill Theory<\/h3>\n<p>The \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/raging-wildfires-may-doomed-californias-ancient-megamammals-tar-pit-fossils-reveal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">overkill<\/a>\u201d theory regarding human blame goes like this: The end of the ice \u2063age warmed North America, leading Stone Age \u2062humans to migrate \u200cin exploration for new resources \u200cand \u200dlands. \u2063The humans, having perfected \u2062stone tools for hunting, placed new\u200c pressures on populations of herbivores, hunting and removing them from ecosystems reliant on the \u200bplant-eaters \u2062to keep the underbrush at bay.\u2062 Then, \u2063those same \u2062humans let all their fires get out of \u2064control, which combined\u2062 with\u200c the warming climate\u2064 to create a doom loop \u200din \u200cwhich fires got \u2064worse, vegetation disappeared, and animals went extinct.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>That\u2019s a helluva theory, but it fails to account for a host of variables. Even the essay in <em>Science<\/em> quotes independent consulting archaeologist Joe Watkins, who worries the recent\u200b study\u200c places too \u200cmuch weight on\u200b the \u200dhuman variable. \u201cThere is no real way to\u2064 specifically link [early] \u2064 humans to the increase in fires,\u201d he says. \u201cThere are alternate possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For example, North American glaciers started \u2062receding around <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/raging-wildfires-may-doomed-californias-ancient-megamammals-tar-pit-fossils-reveal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">14,000<\/a> years ago. \u2063This \u200breally big \u2063change to the climate leading to\u2062 warmer and drier conditions lasted almost \u200b3,000 years \u200cand ended 10,000 years ago. New evidence suggests humans came to North America earlier than\u2062 previously believed \u2014 as \u2064long \u2064as 16,000 \u2063years ago <a href=\"https:\/\/interestingengineering.com\/science\/humans-were-in-the-americas-15000-years-earlier-than-previously-thought\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">or\u200d more<\/a> \u2014 meaning they coexisted with their new ecosystem for thousands of \u2064years.\u2063 In light of this, it seems a bit of a \u2063stretch to suggest \u2064that \u200csuddenly,\u200c over a relatively short 400-year period, humans lost control of themselves and burned down their environment.<\/p>\n<p>Even O\u2019Keefe, the lead author of the study, admits\u200c that \u201cin the past he had been convinced by the overkill hypothesis. \u2018This\u200c kind of 20th century masculine \u201cwe\u2019re\u200d going to hunt\u2063 them to extinction\u201d kind of thing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, \u201cThen he \u200dsaw all\u2062 the data\u2064 showing \u2063people had coexisted with megafauna for thousands of years. \u2018I had\u2064 to unlearn this idea that it was going to be humans\u2019 \u200cfault. \u2026 It\u2019s more nuanced than \u2064that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Watkins noted that dry \u2064lightning storms probably contributed\u2064 to the wildfires. Indeed,\u200b lightning is \u2014 by a wide margin \u2014 the\u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/earth.org\/what-causes-wildfires\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">leading cause \u2062of fires today<\/a>, \u200dand there\u2019s no reason to believe it wasn\u2019t the leading cause\u2062 of fires 13,000 years ago. \u2062On a different note, some studies have suggested mammoths\u200b went extinct <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencenews.org\/article\/mammoths-extinct-earlier-edna-evidence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">far earlier than we previously believed<\/a>, \u2062and that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedaily.com\/releases\/2017\/03\/170306091927.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">extreme cold<\/a>, not only \u2064extreme\u200c heat, can be\u200d the \u200bcause of\u2063 mass extinction.<\/p>\n<p>But none of this nuance appears to matter to the New York Times\u200b author who seems primarily concerned with how the\u2062 study\u200b relates to\u2063 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/code-red-biden-amps-up-messaging-on-climate-change\/\" title=\"\u2018Code Red\u2019: Biden Amps Up Messaging On Climate Change\">climate change today<\/a>. The article \u2064seems to \u2064suggest that\u2064 because humans allegedly caused\u2063 the mass die-off\u200b in Southern California 13,000 years ago, \u200bwe will do it\u2064 again \u2063\u2014 because \u200cwe always do.<\/p>\n<p>The piece\u2062 concludes with a quote\u200b from a paleoecologist not \u2063involved in the study, who said, \u201cWhat we are seeing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/retcon-climate-science-blames-humans-for-fires-13000-years-ago\/\" title=\"Climate science now attributes the occurrence of fires 13,000 years ago to human activity.\">today \u2014\u200b increasing human pressures combined<\/a> \u200dwith and actually causing \u200bclimate change \u2014\u200d is like\u200b this lesson from the past on steroids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s\u2064 all a classic example of \u2062historical \u201cretcon,\u201d\u2062 or retroactive continuity\u2064 \u2014 which is essentially the\u2063 creation of a revisionist view of\u2064 history, revising facts\u200b and events we all thought we \u2062knew. And thanks to the \u2062worldview of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/katrina-miller\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the Times reporter<\/a>, it \u200bhas even seeped into science reporting, creating a de facto revisionist science.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Times recently stated that humans caused devastating wildfires in California, resulting in a tragic loss of life. The author attributed these fires to man-made climate change, highlighting evidence from a prestigious peer-reviewed study that demonstrates humanity&#8217;s detrimental impact on the environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2125,"featured_media":2018941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2018940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2018940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2018940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2018941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2018940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2018940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2018940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}