"60 Minutes" did a great piece on forest fires in America’s West: The Age of Mega-Fires – Warming Climate Fuels Mega-Fires.

This informative and disturbing segment highlights that due to a warming climate, the fire season is 78 days longer on average than it was 15 or 20 years ago. And forest infernos up to ten times bigger than we’re used to seeing are becoming more common.

If global warming continues, we could continue to get large scale fires that could wipe out half of the forests in the West. And in 2006, the federal government spent $2 billion on fire fighting, seven times more than ten years ago.

Says Tom Boatner, chief of federal government’s fire operations: "…we’re dealing with a period of climate, in terms of temperature and humidity and drought that’s different than anything people have seen in our lifetimes."

Read more and see the video at:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/18/60minutes/main3380176.shtml