While in Washington State speaking at a fundraiser, “President Barack Obama says a wildfire that has burned nearly 400 square miles in the north-central part of Washington state, along with blazes in other Western areas, can be attributed to climate change.”  According to Obama, “a lot of it has to do with drought, a lot of it has to do with changing precipitation patterns and a lot of that has to do with climate change.” Obama was speaking of the Carlton Complex of fires in Washington.  Perhaps Obama would be interested to know that there is not a single significant trend towards increasing drought conditions in any of Washington State's 10 climate divisions – including and especially those in and around the wildfire – since records began in 1895.  So if drought is the cause of the fires, and anthropogenic climate change is the cause of the drought and the fires, why aren't there any trends towards more severe and frequent...(Read Full Post)