Confirmed: The Tragic California Fires Are All Man's Fault Not The Climate

[toobfreak]

Watched a PBS NOVA special the other night primarily about the California fires of 2018 and found it interesting that in the final analysis, it isn't any climate change causing these fires but man's own stupidity and arrogance!

They've identified THREE FACTORS in causing these disastrous megafires that resulted in the loss of so much property and lives:

1. Failed forest management policies where they are letting far too much undergrowth build up in the woods which allows fires to spread quickly. They used to do controlled burns every so many years to clear this stuff out but stopped because so many people complained about it. Ironically those fighting this were the very same people who were at HIGHEST RISK of getting burned up in a fire! If that wasn't stupid enough, their basis of complaint was petty and two-fold: afraid it would "ruin their view" and "didn't want to smell smoke." So instead, they've caused massive fires which not only TOTALLY ruined their view and made them smell smoke, but lose their homes and communities!
2. Building homes in highly wooded, high risk areas. Economy and housing market was such that it is now in vogue to build homes and communities in hard to reach, highly wooded areas most prone to fire loss and damage!
3. Dry conditions. 2018 saw 200 days without rain making the woods extra highly flammable. Now everyone wants to blame this on "climate change" but the fact is that California is normally naturally very dry through much of the year and hot. One must allow for natural variation that these are dry times. Nature goes through natural variations that can last a few years, a few decades, even a few centuries without the need for climate change.

Let's look at the actual factors that caused and contributed to the 2018 Camp megafire and catastrophe:

• California has a windy season where high winds blow. It was this wind that blew down a high tension power line that sparked the fire. The question is: why wasn't the grid designed that it be shut off during such high winds? If this was impractical due to supply needs, then why wasn't it at least built rated to take such winds or at least keyed to detect a fault in the system when there was a break in the current (connectivity) that it auto-shut down in such an occurrence immediately? I mean, whoever it supplied wasn't getting power now anyway!
• Fire now started, there were NO fire breaks anywhere which would have assisted in stopping or at least slowing the spread of the fire, not to mention give better access to emergency responders. But fire breaks aren't pretty so Californians didn't want them and windy, little narrow roads are cute and "exclusive."
  
• Fanned by ideal conditions of very dry conditions under high wind and starting in a valley, the fire naturally spread very quickly (an acre a second) because everywhere it spread was going uphill. An uphill slope assisted the fire because cool air feeding it comes in from behind forcing the heat out ahead of it at a higher rate more quickly drying and prepping that ahead of it to burn faster and sooner.
• Very poor access roads meant that when the evacuation signal sounded, all the roads out were small, narrow, windy roads that could not handle the traffic. Things blocked the roads, one woman went into labor, people ended up stuck sitting in longs lines not moving and fire-fighters could not get in.

Ironically, some of the people unable to get out parked their cars in large parking lots (natural fire breaks) and their cars survived because the fire went around them!

Bottom Line: these fires didn't need to happen. Just as people build along the water's edge oblivious apparently that water levels go up and down then complain of flooding, this fire was caused by man's own arrogance and stupidity ignoring the natural dryness of California (which doesn't even allow for extreme dryness during drier spells like now), an electric grid not keyed to respond to breaks in wires, heinous forest management policies, and the greed and shortsightedness of building homes in deeply wooded areas with no planned fire breaks or good access roads. They set themselves up as a perfect storm just waiting for a disaster like this to eventually strike and now stand shocked.

All of this could have been avoided if only for better planning and intelligent forethought. Now that these fires have burned, California and places like it all around the world need to start rethinking their planning so that forests are better managed as well as more intelligent land development, because climate or not, these things will happen if man doesn't start thinking more broadly than pretty views, exclusivity and selfish needs.

The good news is that nature is self-adjusting. It recovers. But if a region experiences two fires in too short a period, it naturally makes that area slower to repopulate trees thus reducing further risk for a longer time equalizing the problem. Now if man can only be as intelligent.

Inside the Megafire

 

[SSDD]

Guess you won't get much of a response from the local warmers.. If it can't be twisted to support their political cause, they aren't interested....and if it directly contradicts the hysterical handwaving claims that they have been making, they certainly don't want to see it and have nothing but contempt for whoever had nerve enough to post it.

 

[Wuwei]

They've identified THREE FACTORS in causing these disastrous megafires that resulted in the loss of so much property and lives:

According to my Sister-in-law who lives in CA, 60% of the forests are federal property. Much of the rest is private property. The State of California owns relatively little. She would agree with your 3 points. There is not adequate federal funding for forest maintenance.

People built housing on private property adjacent to the federal land which as you say is pretty stupid. The Administration and California are pointing fingers at each other. It's probably safe for the people to rebuild on the same spot since there is nothing left to burn. The rest should plan a fast exit strategy.

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[toobfreak]

They've identified THREE FACTORS in causing these disastrous megafires that resulted in the loss of so much property and lives:

According to my Sister-in-law who lives in CA, 60% of the forests are federal property. Much of the rest is private property. The State of California owns relatively little. She would agree with your 3 points. There is not adequate federal funding for forest maintenance.

People built housing on private property adjacent to the federal land which as you say is pretty stupid. The Administration and California are pointing fingers at each other. It's probably safe for the people to rebuild on the same spot since there is nothing left to burn. The rest should plan a fast exit strategy.
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I've been all over most of the state and know the place well. I can understand the desire for a beautiful place of exclusion far off in the forest, but clearly, someone is not thinking ahead to "What if this happens? Or that?" California has much beauty but is clearly far overextended itself and Mother Nature has a way of making adjustments with no thought of what is good for mankind. We give away billions of dollars to other countries when clearly, the money can be better spent right here.

 

[toobfreak]

Guess you won't get much of a response from the local warmers.. If it can't be twisted to support their political cause, they aren't interested....and if it directly contradicts the hysterical handwaving claims that they have been making, they certainly don't want to see it and have nothing but contempt for whoever had nerve enough to post it.

Too bad for them. When I write and present something, I don't usually leave too much room for the data to be twisted. It's easy to run off claiming that California's fires are "proof" of climate change, but no climate change was needed just some drier than normal weather combined with some bad policies catching up on the state. I have or have had friends in the central and southern parts of the state and have heard it all from them (including being there myself on visit): at various times that state goes through drought, terrible rain (La Nina), incessant coastal fogs, you name it. One guy near LA finally had it with the bad weather and moved to the Philippines for more clear skies, another complains of the haze and smog (and smoke, living not far from some of these fires), now last year they couldn't buy a rain cloud for anything. Which one of those was due to Climate Change? We shall see what this year brings; if in 5 years they are still dry as a crisp and burning up, maybe they will be onto something. Between that and sucking the Colorado River dry and now the parks of poverty people living in tents, I'd say California liberalism has pretty much gone its full course from what started out as once probably the most beautiful state in the country.

 

[skookerasbil]

Lol.....brush fires that picked the houses it wanted to burn. Man- made doesnt begin to describe it.....laughable. Houses burned to ash and the trees around it perfectly intact.