Vox video "Why is California always on fire?"

[PetraG]

Over-zealous fire control in national forests over the last century has been a negative thing. Sometimes, it’s better to let nature take it’s course.

That really doesn’t explain Oregon’s grassland fires, though, does it?

They can barely breathe in Idaho. Tell them that this isn’t news.

You can quibble about why things are the way they are, whether we are at fault or (perhaps more to the point) whether we can do anything to even fractionally change the direction things are going, but it is nonsensical to pretend nothing has changed. That isn’t a tenable position any more.

 

[Daisy]

but it is nonsensical to pretend nothing has changed.

That’s not my position. The fires have been larger and way more dangerous these past 10 years, and I actually blame that whole Smoky the Bear mvmt.

Gee I hope I was clear on that.

 

[adgloriam]

@PetraG @Roseeurekacross

FWIW, I was at a ceremony this year where the UN general secretary made a speech, climate change was among a hand full of main concerns he cited, approximately:“If we do our best and meet all set carbon emission goals, the best we can hope for is to slow the current rate of progression of climate change, to (I think he said 0.5ºC) increase per decade.” So things seem certain to get worst…

 

[PetraG]

So things seem certain to get worst…

Well, we just don’t know. There isn’t any reason to believe our climate has ever done this.
And you know what the farmer said when his mule died.
(“Well. I’ll be. He’s never done that before…”)

 

[kill051]

One class of kids I worked with were told by their teacher that they were doomed to a future of hell because the planet was too far gone to ever be saved. One of those kids was suicidal. Seems like a GREAT message to be sharing.

That is one teacher in severe need of retraining, and possibly termination. As you point out, we by no means have all the answers in this controversial debate. It wasn’t that long ago (within the last forty years) that the ‘experts’ were running around predicting the exact opposite: a new Ice Age that would turn Earth into an uninhabitable frozen ball of snow and ice. Almost sounds like this particular teacher is a radical proponent of extreme measures, rather like those members of PETA that think everyone should be vegan and no one should be allowed to have pets.