dust
the henry coe fire launched a huge cloud of dust over the entire bay area. our policy of fire suppression at work. and i was wondering about any connection between it and climate change. the thinking goes like this: all this nice combustible fuel builds up. instead of many small fires you get one big one that's hot enough to destroy species of plants that would have survived the smaller fires. change the vegetation change the climate. it's possible. i'm also thinking the big fire might launch more dust/soot/crap higher into the air where it stays for longer and affects a larger area. it might just be a coincidence but the heat wave here ended with the fire. i really don't know if this is true or not. i could just be blowing smoke.