The other night, KTVU 2 
in Oakland, Calif., ran a report about a study(pdf) by scientists in California and Arizona about the effects of global warming on wildfires in the West. The finding was big—the fire season has gotten longer since the mid-1980s, and the time needed to contain wildfires has multiplied as much as four times. A double whammy.
According to Wikipedia , the causes of global warming are changes in sea levels and a blanket of greenhouse gases . The gist of this study is that global warming has more of an impact on forest fires than do changes in land use—logging, mining, tourism, etc. The areas of greatest increase in fires, the study found, are those with stable land use conditions. Since use of the land didn’t change, the study attributes that increase in fires to global warming.
You can therefore look at individual preparedness as part of helping the globe prepare, and it can mean big changes in our lives—like getting out of your car or installing those solar panels, as Climate Choices (a project of the Union of Concerned Scientists) details at its site. Looking at the big picture, individual preparedness is broader than what you may first imagine: your first aid kit and bottled water are a small part of a larger planetary rescue mission!
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