thanks trump! i can't wait for my asthma to get better in pittsburgh! asthma helps with managing corona symptoms right?
is there any part of this country you're going to leave unburned?
I hope that they find the folks who are starting these fires. NO, they are not all 'natural'.
Pick up tractors, backhoe loaders and deforestation within 2 km of the fire outbreaks. Do not deforest only, destroy all vegetation at 180 °. Leaves only dirt (and wet, soaked). Destroy the vegetation, drop trees and fend off 1 km beyond 2 km with the tractors. It is necessary to contain the food of the fire, which is the oxidizing material, in this case the high and low vegetation and the trees. If they do not do this, the fire will advance much more and destroy what lies ahead (WHILE THERE IS WHAT TO BURN).
"...they had forgotten to water down some dry bushes nearby..." - I though, after the many Hollywood Hills fires, homeowners had been told to clear all combustable brush from as far from their homes as they could legally do so. Sounds like good advice ignored.
A will fire in California has nothing to do with me here in Georgia? As mentioned in The Water Will Come", smoke from this fire and those before this one drifts over Greenland and settles on glaciers, darkening the ice and causing them the melt more rapidly. Maybe not as dramatic as a butterfly flapping it's wings in Brazil, but still, very serious. We are all in this more than we know.
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We have to stoop underestimating the damage global warming can do.
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How are fires impatient travel to and from region? Are airlInes and Amtrak waiving their cancellation and rebook in chsrges?
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Article fails to point out that often ignition source/cause are power lines traversing this landscape above-ground. It's still too soon to see cause or ignition source info about the Thomas Fire (Ventura) from CalFire, but power lines have been ignition sources in the past (e.g. for the 2003 and 2007 fires in San Diego Co.). California Public Utilities Commission needs to slowly and inexorably require the utilities to underground their lines in these areas vulnerable to Santa Ana winds.
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I used to envy my west coast relatives when I was knee deep in snow, I even thought of moving there,However, these fires seem to be a annual event ,along with earth quakes, & mud slides.I’ll take the snow.
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The many new homes there these past 40 years have become the stepping stones for the wild fires. Poor environmental foresights - what happened to State and Federal Environmental Planning.
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Even the stars of Hollywood are not immune to the ravages of wildfire and nature. It goes where it will, and it teaches a lesson to all. Do not build your home on land that has historically been fire scorched every 30-40 years. All the money in the world cannot deny that history and nature will repeat themselves.
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Paul, what part of the country do you live in? Do you SERIOUSLY think you are safe from lone-wolf shooters, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, electricity outages, fires, heat waves or cold freezes, hail storms, inflation, someone stealing your savings, or identity theft? If so, I want to live where you do...
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You mean like building NYC in a wetland? How about building New Orleans on a sandy river delta?
You forget that these places were established hundreds of years ago - not yesterday. We are the current stewards of previous generations' work & mistakes - don't be an armchair quarterback. We're doing the best we can. Have some compassion for these poor people.
ok, CA is on fire. And of course the Times jumps to say that it's due to global warming. Really? How about you've got too many people living in areas prone to fire, that LA is in reality a desert area and there has been a history of poor fire mgmt that leads to bigger fires?
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And, of course, some reactionary jumps in to fight the straw man he set up. Nowhere in this article do they mention global warming. Really? How about you've got too many presuppositions to actually respond to the article?
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jeez, Ralphie. Where exactly do YOU live? No vulnerability to floods, tornadoes, hurricanes or flooding??
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and you're not reacting, right?
You can't fight global warming with your hosepipes America. Time to wake up, smell the burning roses, and pressure your government to reprioritize their agenda.
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So what I don't understand is why californians don't undertake some preventative procedures agains these fires. Can't you form a corps of young people to clear out the brush - everyone under 30 must work for a year as a public service, clear cut fields, grow grasses, put water tanks there and tanks of fire retardants for firefighters to use. Oh, I know. I don't know anything about it. Well, I turn the channel when it comes up. Just how much same old, same old can I be interested in?
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Have you ever been to California? Do you have even the slightest idea about how many millions -- meaning, hundreds of hundreds of thousands-- of acres you are talking about? Have you ever actually tried to clear a few yards of brush?
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It's true - you don't know anything about California.
Everyone under 30 must work for a year? What are you talking about?
It's not a question of being interested either. Just have compassion and be respectful of people's situations, regardless of your opinion of how it's being handled.
My heart aches at so many individual tragedies. I fear these firestorms are the new normal in our altered climate. I hope fire-prone areas start to require masonry homes, metal roofs, metal shutters on windows and doors. Not perfect, but far better than status quo. This changes needs consideration *before* rebuilding starts.
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Masonry is a big no-no in earthquake-prone California. Most areas outlawed wooden shingle roofing long ago and require less flammable alternatives. There are a number of rules and laws about building construction already, but how can any structure withstand a fire when the humidity is in the single digits and wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour send sparks and embers flying for miles?
Would be great if you could provide a map that keeps updating as the day progressing, including fires and warning areas.
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The political bias of the media and the NYT in particular is on full display here. In California, the issue is global warming, climate change, drought - far outside the control of people living in blue-blue SoCal. In Texas, the impact of the Houston flooding was the fault of growth, poor urban planning, and other flaws in the people of red-red Texas. I tend to think that poor planning in Houston was a big factor, and the desire of people in SoCal to live on hillsides and in huge areas that are prone to severe, periodic and regular flash fires is also a big issues. How about clearing the canyons impacted, or at least denying them insurance coverage, as we are talking doing to people building in costal areas prone to flooding?
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It's a combination of factors that cause these natural disasters.
Poor planning on where homes are built, whether the floodplains of Texas or Louisiana, or the annually parched hillsides of California. Builders who disregard nature should not be allowed.
However, the impacts of a changing climate cannot be ignored either. Stronger and more frequent hurricanes, drier landscapes and faster winds can indeed be sourced to a warmer carbon laden atmosphere.
If we're to survive as a civilization, we need to tackle all these problems from the ground up. Pulling out of Paris accords was exactly the wrong thing to do with the consequences coming fast and furious.
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Wow John, what a mishmash of ideas. Political bias? Global warming - aka climate change - results in more flooding - changing tides, isostaic rebound (look that one up), warming of the oceans- even 1 degree makes a difference- water expands when heated so when you heat 326 million trillion gallons of seawaterr 1 degree where does it expand to? Climate change also results in drier seasons in some areas, results in changing wind and atmospheric patterns - that is the cause. The effect is as you see it, food plains flooded, arid areas burn't. Yes, poor planning and poor construction techniques but the underlying cause - climate change.
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Absolute truth!
God/Mother Nature intended that Southern California be a sparsely populated earth quaking desert by supernatural and natural law.
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Southern California - Welcome to the apocalypse of climate change. No place will be spared.
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