“Donald Trump must treat this like the existential crisis that it is,” says Bernie. I agree, but the crisis isn’t what Bernie thinks.
Existential Crisis in Environmental and Climate Stupidity
Sanders is correct. We have an existential crisis. But the crisis is in environmental and climate stupidity, not climate change.
Even Mother Jones Understands
Mother Jones forecast this event in 2017, no less. Please consider A Century of Fire Suppression Is Why California Is in Flames.
For more than a century, people have been snuffing out fire across the West. As a result, forests, grasslands and shrub lands like those in the Bouverie reserve are overgrown. That means that, when fire escapes suppression, it’s more destructive. It kills more trees, torches more homes and sends far more carbon into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.
“We have 100 years of fire suppression that has led to this huge accumulation of fuel loads, just dead and downed debris from trees and plant material in our forests, and in our woodlands,” says Sasha Berleman, a fire ecologist. “As a result of that, our forests and woodlands are not healthy, and we’re getting more catastrophic fire behavior than we would otherwise.”
When fire hits overgrown wildlands, it burns hotter and is much more likely to kill stands of trees and threaten property and people’s lives.
But it also unleashes the carbon held by trees, other plants and soil. Forests store enormous amounts of carbon—more than double the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere—and continuously soak up more, blunting the impact of all the greenhouse gases released by burning fossil fuels in power plants and cars. In recent decades, the size of fires, their intensity and the length of the fire season have all grown dramatically. The more destructive a fire, the more carbon it releases. In fact, largely because of fires, California’s forests emitted more carbon than they soaked up between 2001 and 2010, according to a 2015 analysis by National Park Service and UC Berkeley scientists.
The New York Times Too
Next, please consider These Changes Are Needed Amid Worsening Wildfires, a 2020 article in the New York Times.
Wildfires are ravaging the West — in California alone, five of the largest blazes on record have all struck in just the past four years — offering a deadly reminder that the nation is far behind in adopting policies widely known to protect lives and property, even though worsening fires have become a predictable consequence of climate change.
The worsening wildfire disasters mean the United States needs to drastically rethink its approach to managing fire in the decades ahead, experts warn. “The first step is to acknowledge that fire is inevitable, and we have to learn to live with it,” said David McWethy, a fire scientist at Montana State University.
For over a century, firefighting agencies have focused on extinguishing fires whenever they occur. That strategy has often proved counterproductive. Many landscapes evolved to burn periodically, and when fires are suppressed, vegetation builds up thickly in forests. So when fires do break out, they tend to be far more severe and destructive.
Scientists who study wildfires agree that allowing forests and grasslands to burn periodically — by, say, intentionally setting smaller fires under controlled conditions — can be a more effective way to clear out vegetation. In Ponderosa pine forests, for instance, low-level fire can nurture ecosystems and help prevent destructive large-scale fires from breaking out.
This already occurs in the Southeastern United States, where officials use prescribed fires to burn millions of acres each year. With rare exceptions, however, the practice remains infrequent in the West. California intentionally burned just 50,000 acres in 2017.
But the scale is daunting: One study found that the state would need to burn or treat 20 million acres to counteract the legacy of fire suppression. (Researchers have estimated that in prehistoric times, around 4 to 12 million acres in the state burned each year, but that has since dropped precipitously.)
Notes From X
- Official Leftist Translator @tony4mrht: What you call climate change others might call lack of preparation. California legislated over $7 billion for water storage in 2014 and NOTHING has been built.
- Michael Shellenberger @shellenberger: Climate change or no climate change, scientists say somewhere between 500,000 and 4M acres of forest land need to burn annually in California. Doing that requires moving beyond the pyrophobia, alarmism, and politicization that got us into this mess in the first place.
- “Climate dries the [wood] fuels out & extends the fire season BUT IT’S NOT THE CAUSE OF THE INTENSITY of the fires. The cause of that is fire suppression and the existing debt of wood fuel.” Malcolm North, US Forest Service
- Kyle Becker @kylenabecker: Link to a short video on climate change vs fire suppression as a cause.
- Eric Daugherty @EricLDaugh: Just before devastating wildfires broke out in the Los Angeles area, the Democratic LA Mayor – Karen Bass – SLASHED fire department funding by $17.6 million.
- Steve Guest @SteveGuest: Reality check. As Pacific Palisades burns, fighterfighters report hydrants running dry.
- Liz Churchill @liz_churchill10: The LA Mayor is in Africa…as she spent their tax dollars funding Fire Departments in Ukraine. There was no water to put out these fires…and California is next to an ocean. Californians had their home insurance cancelled PRIOR to these fires.
- Geiger Capital @Geiger_Capital: “This is like a third world country… there is no water coming out of the fire hydrants. LA Mayor Karen Bass is on a foreign trip to Ghana.” Click link for a video.
Lord of the Rings
911 Failure, Sparking Electrical Fires
California Residents are filming fallen electrical wires that are sparking against the trees. This resident and his neighbor have been trying to call 911. They have admitted that California has failed them.
No Water Coming out of Hydrants
Priority is DEI
We need to get our priorities straight.
Bernie Sanders is correct.
“Donald Trump must treat this like the existential crisis [of stupidity] that it is.”
I have a strong feeling of people wishing to move away or cash in from California, well burn the house and leave is a possibility.
A good percentage of houses have been burned on purpose. Folks in need of money, many, folks not able to sell a funny house, more than many…..hahahahaha
The elephant in the room is the US Military. There is a reason why recruiting goals are not met, and command appointments go unfilled. Once the US uses up its limited supply of hi-tech weaponry, it is likely to lose.
Now, go through the entire Federal, state, and county government. Ya think the US has a problem?
Saying the right words but leaving one word out that is confusing the situation.
We have a “Political” Climate change!
I wonder if the person who owns this house was in the fire path? Or how many of the ultrarich have similar facilities under their homes?
I would build me a fallout shelter if I had a $20 million+ house and also a 360³ perimeter sprinkler system during off public and then a private water cistern in case of fire!
Is the modern American economy of building cheap houses because we do not believe in the future and if I move away nobody pay me back a good brick&mortar fireproof home.
I wonder what the ecological damage is of dumping ocean salt water on the So CA vegetation is? Is the Sierra Club protesting yet?
One has to ask despite Native Americans and the Aborigines in Australia “pruning” the forests successfully for centuries prior to settler colonialism and repeated warnings by the aforementioned ethnic groups to implement a sustainable policy in the US and Australia in the recent past, why the aforementioned governments don’t.
It doesn’t cost that much to implement and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
It is beyond politics, DEI, incompetence, etc. These are easy targets to foment more divide and conquer by the billionaire class.
I would argue this is what the .1% want. Forcing out the middle class due to high rents, high insurance and property taxes is what I would do, if I wanted to bifurcate the state into haves and have nots.
Readers of Mish Talk on the Left and the Right ought to come to realize the political, economic and social elites have been playing the game of divide and conquer for thousands of years.
Put the American Indians back in control!
This is the first I’ve heard of Australian aborigines pruning the forests. They were not equipped to fight fires with bare feet and boomerangs. Instead, nature pruned by lightning strikes, and fires burned out of control. That said, the vegetation has evolved to regenerate ‘quickly’
Australia does have a volunteer force for fighting bush fires, and a populace that sometimes knows what to do if the property is threatened by fire
@Flingel Blunt,
You can use your favorite search engine to confirm the below but below is what I was able to find:
Aboriginal controlled burns, also known as cultural burning or cool burning, are a traditional practice used by Indigenous peoples to manage land and promote ecological health. These burns are intentionally set to clear underbrush, control weeds, and reduce the risk of larger, uncontrolled wildfires. Here are some key points about Aboriginal controlled burns:
No surprise. Private timberlands do not have these disastrous conflagrations. The timber in private timberlands has value. The companies spend the money to maintain the health of the forests. Thank the “public servants” that YOU voted for for their stewardship of our resources.
So this is another example of the tragedy of the commons?
This fire should be named the TDS Fire of 2025!
Wildland fires drove us from our MTN Home in Norcal in 2009. The last straw was an evacuation order at 2am and I witnessed burning roof materials float into our Front Yard and we were SURROUNDED with woods. That did it. We sold the house in 2009 and left Cal for good.
All those in the LA municipal government who helped put LA in a situation like this should be voted out of office next election! And sued for everything they have!
California Fires: Bulldozers move cars during fires
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLD1XA2UcwQ
Insurance would cover fire damage to cars but does it cover bulldozer damage due to stupid people leaving their cars in the middle of the road and many actually LOCKED their cars, instead of leaving them open with the key so they could be moved
Jojo, ever left a house in a panic in the middle of a wildfire? We did. We had pre-planned and packed a Cargo Trailer with files and Paintings; we hooked up the trailer to our Jeep. We hooked up our Honda Tow Vehicle behind our Prevost Bus. We got the call at 2am: “EVACUATE!” Even as well planned as we were, the Hwy down to Redding was jammed with cars and the fire was burning a ridge RIGHT UP TO THE MAIN well-paved two lane road. It was SCARY. Our house made it and we sold it two years later after down-sizing and dumping EVERYTHING! We no longer own homes. ONLY two RV’s (One is a bus) and we travel full-time and have stuff in the Cargo trailer stored and THAT shit is not even needed after 10 years traveling. We are giving the rest to the Salvation Army store. (TOOLS, etc.).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en1uwIzI3SE
Mister Mish, send in contractors to clear out the forest. They can convert the deadwood to biomass such as for power plants using Stirling engines, wood stoves, etc.
Also can use the dead wood for “engineered wood” used for residential construction.
It’t is far easier to parade a rainbow flag than to put out on the troubled seas of thought.
Rome is once again burning while Brandon is in dementia state giving peace awards to criminals against humanity.
Can not make this shit up.
Corruptions to the Max.
You can’t fix stupid.
Firefighters have no water and no air support. Nothing can stop burning the entire city of 12 million.
Consequences:
emigration of Californians
tax base collapse
rampage of starving third world people
martial law
unemployment
Newsom will raise taxes
Get a gun if you live in California.
and Newsom will kick off his presidential campaign
People get what they vote for.
Wow. GDP will go up again. 0.5%
The Trump administration wants to throw out the data of where to build and not build. Trump wants to develop and grow everywhere very similar to California or Texas or Florida or his native New York. What we should be doing instead reducing development everywhere. There is no escape from the climate that is about to take hold. I hope all of you live a long time and see it. You’ll see what I mean. Florida was overwhelmed in 2024. Now Southern California. You can blame lack of controlled burns or 100 years of whatever but nothing I’ve seen in my 50 years on Earth can stop mother nature’s fury.
– The Trump administration wants to throw out the data of where to build and not build.
> Actually Trump wants the Government to stay out of the “Insurance Industry”
– Trump wants to develop and grow everywhere very similar to CA or TX or FL or NY.
> Actually Trump doesn’t want to develop anything either, but stay “Out of It”
– What we should be doing instead reducing development everywhere.
> Trump won’t stop it!
– There is no escape from the climate that is about to take hold.
> It “Took Hold” Centuries Ago!
– I hope all of you live a long time and see it.
> Me too! I have been watching it since my eyes opened up.
– Florida was overwhelmed in 2024.
> When hasn’t it been?
– Now Southern California.
> As in “Now Once Again”
– You can blame lack of controlled burns or 100 years of whatever.
> Lack of “Forrest Management” and “Greed” Perhaps?
– can stop mother nature’s fury.
> So we “MUST” do a better job “Working WITH Her”
– There isn’t a city in America that is ready for an urban wildfire with 100mph winds where it hasn’t rained in nearly a year.
> Hmm… Can “You” tell me “ALL” by Name please, and “Followed Up” with WHY?
Many years ago (Jan 1, 1969), a landscape architect/planner, Ian McHarg, published Design With Nature. At the time, it was the preeminent book on effective land use. It covered such issues as NOT building on flood plains, or on barrier islands. Had the US adopted it as a guide to development, it would have far fewer problems with wildfires, hurricanes, floods etc, and endless sprawling suburbia…
But the crisis is in environmental and climate stupidity, not climate change.
—
Wrong on this one. This is an urban fire. There isn’t a city in America that is ready for an urban wildfire with 100mph winds where it hasn’t rained in nearly a year.
Did you read the article? Sounds like the Southeast is ready. They do controlled burns there. If there is no fuel to sustain the fire, it won’t get to the sizes seen with these fires. Also, you are assuming other places in the US also have no water to put the fires out with because they FAILED TO PLAN.
Los Angeles like all US cities is a third world country. Diversity is their demise. Imagine a graduate of a third rate Puerto Rico college and lifelong affirmative action token bureaucrat with no technical experience, never ever accountable running the Los Angeles fire water resources. The fire hydrants are dry. No water or foam is available for air drops.
You must not have traveled very much. I’m from an actual third world country and they would love to have a city like Los Angeles.
Denial is not a river in Egypt.
nobody cares. Sit down and have a pop tart.
Wow, you are really on a Troll Roll today. Congratulations.
– Los Angeles like all US cities is a third world country. “Diversity” is their demise.
> Let’s not “Mix Up” DEI with Diversity as they are “Starkly” different.
– Imagine a graduate of a third rate Puerto Rico college
> Yes? Hired You Mean? “DEI”
– and lifelong affirmative action token bureaucrat with no technical experience
> Yes? Hired You Mean? “DEI”
– never ever accountable running the Los Angeles fire water resources. The fire hydrants are dry. No water or foam is available for air drops.
> Didn’t say Whom? Didn’t say When? Didn’t say Why? Can’t help…
What happens when the FAIR Plan becomes insolvent?
The insurers who haven’t already left the state are required to bail the program out. The loss will be passed on as a surcharge to all the homeowners in the state.
Living in California is about to get even more unaffordable.
How do people in Pacific Palisades, where the cheapest shack is worth 2M, even qualify for socialized insurance? People in places like that should be on their own. Particularly in any high-risk areas.
Agree. And they will be.
Australia committed an act of eco warfare by giving California Eucalypts, aka napalm trees.
We have the same bushfire problems in Australia where the Greenies won’t allow controlled burns to clear the underbrush.
Yeah and people here in the LA foothills planted tons of em for windbreaks🤷🏻♂️. Luckily bark beetles are killing tons of em and Uke firewood is cheap. Still most of the old scrub oaks that were fire resistant are long gone both from being shaded by non-natives and used for firewood.
People keep asking “where is the Mayor”?
But what can she do …it not like she has any special abilities like blowing out a fire.
A better question … “where’s the VP”? 🙂
Harris is getting ready for her last tax payer vacation out of the country.
I’m in Camarillo CA where we had around 180 home burn in November. In my 25 years living here I don’t think I’ve seen a fire that was put out on those hills that burned. Also the area that burned was underbrush not an overgrown forest, and the underbrush didn’t seem way out of control.
I dispute the claim that 100 years of firefighting efforts is to blame. I would point the finger at the lack of controlled burns. The problem with controlled burns is they have gotten out of control in the past which becomes a liability on the agency doing the burn.
If we want to talk solutions then I would remove most but not all liability on the agency that does controlled burns (because some liability is needed to keep people honest). I would also let it become an economic decision where insurance rates continue to increase based on the risk. Use a fire zone map to set fire insurance rates. Once people can see it on a map then they will push for the controlled burns to reduce their rates.
Why do I think this will work? Because that’s what happened for the flood zone in Camarillo. The map was updated which put a lot of people (including me) in a higher rate zone. Once everyone started to complain the city fortified the flood control channels and this fixed the problem (reduced our rates and made the place safer for floods).
With Mishtalk being an economic site, I think this is a good example of how economics can be used to solve a problem like this.
Yeah, but, that all can’t be right! I mean, Mish has quoted those notable forestry management and fire fighting experts, Official Leftist Translator and Liz Churchill to give u the skinny and the solutions. I guess he couldn’t get in touch with Caturd.
A subdivision with a dedicated insurer helping to figure out sharing risk/expense could economically mitigate major damage. No doubt happening in various places.
Prescribed burns (the newer terminology) near urban areas it cheap but sounds problematic. Just bring the bulldozers, concrete trucks and green paint for afterward.
Having been active in the outdoors in SoCal since 1975 I can tell you in the hills around LA the “chaparral” type brush coverage has roughly doubled while flame resistant oak areas have greatly diminished. Non-native flammable fast growing bushes and trees have proliferated. Vey poor stewardship of the land is the single biggest component causing these out of control wildfires.
You are so right about brush growth in SoCal. I lived for 15 years in Greenleaf Canyon, a canyon off of Topanga Canyon. Our house was on a mountainside surrounded by chaparral and mesquite (sp?). We lived in blissful ignorance until a native Californian friend (we are from New and Old England, respectively) told us that in the event of fire that brush would go up like a bomb. Sure enough, a couple of years later (1993) came the Malibu Fire (which should have been called the Topanga Fire, because that’s where it started). On the canyon wall opposite us, the chaparral and mesquite went up like…a bomb. Never seen anything like it. Fortunately the winds were blowing the fire in the opposite direction from us. Now that we’re back home I’ll take cold and snow anytime over the many perils of SoCal life.
Watched some of the footage coming out of LA.
No water to fight fires.
Hard to believe that after what happened in Maui (lack of water) that was not enough a wake up call for municipalities to verify the adequacy of fire fighting capability.
Naw, Maui was a one-off … wacky island weather. /s
They’ve got the Pacific ocean right in front of them. Why hasn’t anyone run pipes from the ocean up into hills in case of a need for unlimited water? Put pump stations at the top and connect underground pipes (that don’t spoil the view).
Is this a new idea? Can I get royalties?
except you would need pumps at the bottom to push the water uphill. Those would spoil the views and encroach on someones property /s
try not to make the obvious connection. surgical precision wildfires seem to be the modus operandi of the geopolitical globalist elites.
everybody just cut back your vegetation that will solve the problem riiiight
It’s not just vegetation that burns. Are you saying everyone also needs to make their buildings out of bricks, like in The Three Little Pigs?
Brick houses won’t help, it will just turn them into ovens.
At the size of those fires, the insides of the homes would reach 451 degrees and then everything wood related would self-combust on the inside.
Yep. Like the Trade Center Towers on 9/11. Everything would melt and combust.
Bricks don’t do very well in Earthquakes.
Chill out guys, in only 12 days we’re all going to the promised land. With FULL control of all branches of government, all of this stuff will be a thing of the past when Trump/GOP fix every’ting!
What are you guys gonna do with your first million you easily earn after Trump gets inaugurated?
You do know that there is plenty of progressive idiocy at the state level and that California is emblematic of the ill effects of same? Stop being a pretentious ass and realize that decades of leftist policies at the federal and state level have real life consequences that damage and destroy both lives and property. You snark might be cute to you, but it betrays a callous disregard for the lives of real people. You9 should be – but probably won’t – ashamed of your crass, asinine, and heartless comment.
While I certainly agree with the sentiment, the leftist policies you speak of in California have been voted for overwhelmingly for decades by many of the very people effected now. Unfortunately, sometimes you reap what you sow.
And sometimes shit just happens…
and assholes insert.politics in the midst of a disaster…
for no f’ing reason.
yeah, the hydrants just ran dry. No one’s fault. The boogie man did it.
A lot of people in the urban areas of CA are house wealthy, earn very good salaries, hit the tech IPO lottery and/or have excellent pensions if they worked for government.
As such, they feel “why not share my success/wealth/luck” with others and vote for politicians who champion all sorts of handouts.
They think they are giving poorer people a leg up but they are just making everything more expensive.
Policies have little to nothing to do with the problem at hand and that’s the demographic death spiral. And that death spiral is fairly even across “red” states and “blue” states which means policy has ZERO to do with the core issue.
https://hechingerreport.org/the-impact-of-this-is-economic-decline/
Clowns and fools here keep whining about DEI, immigration, taxes, the Fed, interest rates, Biden, Trump, Congress, and on and on and there is only one REAL problem that has no solution. It’s done. You’ll understand it far more clearly when your quality of life goes down the drain in about 10 years.
Show me a red state with a massive population growth that isn’t tied to immigrants coming in but because of all the “right” policies in place – it doesn’t exist.
Don’t say you weren’t warned or you didn’t see it coming cuz I’m telling you right now. But go ahead and keep raging and whining, let us know how that turns out for you.
Earn? Wouldn’t it be fun if Trump talked Elon into writing $1000 checks to every adult over 18 yo? That’s 265 million people. Musk would still have $150 billion or so to play with.
Can somebody pitch this to Trump on X?
Wrong audience. This group (minus the trolls) trend towards earning their income.
First step is getting rid of Trudeau’s brother Gavin.
He’s 6 years into his 8 years as Governor. He’ll be officially announcing the start of his presidential campaign shortly and will be focused on looking good for that.
this will be hung around him and will drag him down. he’s done.
Doubt it. Newsome is only 2nd to Trump in slipperiness.
The maskless dinner at the French Laundry with a bunch of friends during Covid didn’t hurt him at all.
In lockstep with the Left coast.
New York has stopped removal of woodland debris on state land.
Many NY State Parks are a tinderbox of wood. Wind speeds of 20-30 mph have been blowing for days.
I pray we allow cleanup of the downed wood
before we are putting endless fires out like Los Angeles is today.
As a California outdoorsman I’ve been watching aghast as we cut down fire resistant trees and flammable underbrush loads up year after year. Fast growing flammable trees and brush now dominate the wild environment in a lot of California. When I was a kid we’d graze down the brush with sheep, do intentional controlled burns, and create albeit unsightly large firebreaks. I’ve read that the original native Americans would burn a good portion of California every spring as soon as the underbrush was dry enough to burn.
Compounding the issue is the insurance regulators force the insurers to spread risk and structures were insured in the past that shouldn’t have been and wouldn’t have been built in the first place with freer market insurance.
I fume every time I hear a local politician blaming this on climate change. Sure some climate change may be happening but it’s not the root cause here folks. It’s hubris combined with the stupidity of our local leadership.
Palisades had 3 tanks each holding 1M gallons of water for total of 3M gallons .. .that’s ~6 Olympic swimming pools (basically nada compared to scope needed).
After tanks run out, water gets pumped uphill from LA basin; reduced volume.
Answer isn’t more water but is vigilant zoning/clearing of flammable materials … including wood decks/fences. Rebuild with mandatory pool zoning on 1 acre lots. The whole town (hundreds of 40×90 foot lots) is gone …not just the hippie-houses in the forests/canyons like the many past (ignored) fires.
LA has 100,000ish hotel rooms; need 10-30K for displacements NOW.
Winds/heat to continue. Will LA burn? Is Civil Unrest and marital law incoming?
Most importantly, will the NFL Rams host the wildcard game Monday at SoFi?
I’m sure you meant “martial law” … “marital law” would be very interesting, though!
“So let me get this straight:
• Fire Dept sent supplies to Ukraine.
• Cut their budget by $17.5M
• Mayor was in Africa as the city burned
• Refused to fill reservoirs, to save minnows
• They’re short on firefighters after pushing DEI.
This is what incompetence looks like.”
She’s probably in Africa as part of his exit strategy, probably putting a down payment on some land or a house. Easy to make payments and live like a king when getting your cali pension in Africa.
Like I said, the titanic is gonna sink, people taking lifeboats in real-time.
Best part about all these pensioners moving to other countries is that when we cut off their pensions, we won’t have to worry about feeding them at homeless shelters or that they might protest or riot.
Out of sight, out of mind, someone else’s problem.
It’s a general lack of attention to reality … maybe too much freedom; need for central control over zoning and building materials in a flammable desert. Anyone have a good example?
Also, gotta like this video … can’t avoid parking tickets just cause LA’s on fire
https://x.com/i/status/1877060723458654660
Lots of juicy details here:
Nothing to worry about. Governor Gavin Pelosi-Trudeau is on the case. Any moment now he’ll hire a lesbian feminist who will solve these problems lickety split. Wait, a dark skinned, peg legged, glass eyed, parrot donning member of the LGBTQ community.
The fire probably started by a homeless bloke having a camp site toke while tripping. Along with numerous lightening ignitions, the indigenous Indians started fires regularly for better hunting and forest management when grizzlies were alive and well in California and Oregon before their recent extinction. Must be the woke Gate’s game plan to save the planet and bring back the grizzlies to the Pacific Palisades while saving the Spotted Owl, the Condor, and the Bald Eagle. . .
In Spain there was big wildfires between 1975-1995. The forests’ management changed: cleaning the land in winter, early alert sistems with water deposits and helicopters available in minutes, a new branch of the army was made (Emergency Miltary Unit), and more.
Today thera are MORE fires in Spain because climatic change, new buildings near forests, arsonists, etc, but the area burned has dramatically fallen.
No, the solution is GOATS. They will eat most anything. And then instead of beef, we will eat goat meat and drink goat milk.
You’re welcome.
Who is going to pay the goat fart tax 😉
There used to be shepherds who would graze their flocks on the brush. In ventura
“A friend of a friend in West LA just saw looters plunder her evacuated house on her Ring camera.
Her friends, including some who voted for Harris, are calling for summary execution of the looters.
Turns out, “In This House We Believe” politics disappear when your house does.”
Imagine being the party of crime. Democrats really need to look in the 🪞
Sadly, these types of Americans (at least half our national population) thinks this way. No problem as long as they don’t have skin in the game. Applies to foreign wars, sanctions on countries, crime and even fires. How many of those people in LA voted for Newsom? I bet most. Still, it’s unfortunate that this happened, but sometimes we got to reap what we sow to learn a lesson.
Looters will take advantage of every opportunity.
Coming from Charlie Kirk, there’s very good odds this is another political lie on his X feed (not that we would know that easily from Midnight’s lack of attribution)
An unnamed friend of a friend quoted some different friends that said they were REALLY angry at the looters. Hilarious!
If I knew this blogsite wanted such evidence of political hubris, I would have asked my pre-teen daughter to play phone tag with different friends six rounds and get back to me with the evidence I need to prove Yellen is being mean to Trump. LOL
The messed up thing is that the US forest service tried to get permission to clear more brush back in 2007. The process requires a 3-5 year federal permit review on federal land, so very little brush gets cleared.
The Sierra Club sued against the forest service and won.
Much of the wildfire risk in CA is from brush on federal land that could be better managed if the Sierra Club didn’t exist.
People should sue the Sierra Club for doing so. Or maybe realize that the Sierra Club doesn’t care about people and that whenever it is advocating for something it is probably advocating for something that will inevitably lead to harm to human beings.
“…an extraordinary example of how, starting with a mistake, a remorseless logician can end up in bedlam. John Maynard Keynes
Here’s something to ponder: Climate Change: The last time the Earth was as warm as it is today, was about 120,000 years ago; for most of the time since then it has been much, much colder. Macdougall, Doug. Frozen Earth: The Once and Future Story of Ice Ages (p. 7).
Can we have dinosaurs again, please?
Yes. There are natural cooling and warming cycles, called Milankovitch cycles that have been repeating every 100,000 years for the last million years. These cycles go back much further than this but the evidence from the last million years is the most recent and the clearest.
Each cycle works roughly like this: 80,000 to 100,000 years of orbital changes which reduce the amount of the sun’s energy reaching our planet’s surface. CO2 levels drop from 280 ppm to 180 ppm and the planet cools by 4C to 6C. The ice grows and extends down from the Arctic and ends up covering New York with a mile of ice.
This is followed by 10,000 to 20,000 years of orbital changes that allow more of the sun’s energy to reach the planet. CO2 levels increase from 180 ppm to 280 ppm and the planet warms by 4-6 C. The ice retreats to the Arctic.
The question is: where are we in these cycles today?
As you stated, the last inter-glacial max was 120,000 years ago. CO2 was 280 ppm and temperatures were similar to today.
This was followed by a cooling period which ended 24,000 years ago with 180 ppm CO2 and a mile of ice over New York.
Which was followed by a new warming period which ended 6000 years ago.
We are currently 6000 years into an 80,000 year cooling cycle. Which means that CO2 levels should be starting to drop from 280 ppm to 180 ppm over the next 74,000 years. When we will end up with a mile of ice over New York again.
But something is preventing this natural cooling from happening. Instead of CO2 dropping from 280 ppm to 275 ppm in the last 6000 years, it stayed very steady at 280 ppm. This is explained by man’s
minor influences. Clear cutting and burning of forests for crop land, and other impacts helped to offset the natural cooling that should have been occurring. Then, 200 years ago, we began burning fossil fuels and we have increased CO2 levels quickly from 280 ppm to 420 ppm. This change in CO2 was so fast compared to natural change, that the planet’s climate is many decades or perhaps centuries behind in catching up.
The last time CO2 was that high was 4-5 million years ago. At that time the temperature was 3C higher, more ice had melted and oceans were 50 feet higher than today. The question is not whether we will reach those levels, but how quickly.
And of course, we are not done with our emissions yet. At present emission rates CO2 levels will hit 500 ppm by 2050 and 600 ppm by 2100.
The last time CO2 was 600 ppm was 65 million years ago. Temperatures were 12C higher and there was very little ice left on the planet. Sea levels were 500 feet higher.
Mankind has overwhelmed nature. And we appear to be incapable of fixing it.
True, “Mankind has overwhelmed nature.”
And in exchange, Nature may overwhelm mankind.
Nice summary. Was this AI generated?
Nope. Just a topic I have an interest in. Of course, all the future numbers listed are best estimates based on data from the past.
Yet another fantastic, and also educational, post Papa! Please keep them coming… I must ask a serious question. Are/Were you a Teacher by chance? My Oldest Daughter was, and your writings remind me of her. She now Teaches, Teachers how to Teach. Still writes in the same manner however…
Clearly your an Investor, but maybe another ask, would you be in or were in the industry you play in now? Your info is extremely perceptive and well chronicled and factual, or at least in my limited amount of fact checking.
I am more of a studied person, and reflect my studies in comments and questions that I ask for my own clarity, or shared opinion looking for others reply to such. I learn more on top of what I digested initially this way, and you’re great for this purpose for Me!
Thank You!
Stu
Sorry. I tend not to give too many specifics. Like all humans, I am both a student and a teacher. I have a thirst for knowledge; particularly in science and investments, as I find they go together. Learning and understanding how the universe works is a lifelong pursuit. Understanding energy and it’s impact on all life is a specific focus of mine.
Yes fire suppression has contributed to California wildfires. Remember 55% of California is federal lands so it is also federal policy not just state policy. Increased building into wildfire prone areas has been a large contributor of the cost of wildfires. Also climate change (no matter what the cause) has contributed. The last three decades have been much drier than normal. There has been so much building into wildfire prone areas no one will allow a fire to burn itself out because there are too many homes in the potential paths.
The problem will eventually solve itself by removing built up fuel, destroying houses in wildfire areas, and increasing insurance costs so there will be better fire resistant construction standards and less building in wildfire prone areas. The transition time however will be quite difficult.
“The last three decades have been much drier than normal. “
Cadillac Desert isn’t just a catchy name for a novel. LA exists in its current form because of water piped into the area, writing that it has been much drier than normal overlooks the fact that ‘normal’ is very dry and the past two years have been exceedingly wet (see link). This winter’s rainy season hasn’t seen any rain, but the hydrologic year has seen a surplus. The infrequent nature of significant rain events is why water storage is crucial to the greater LA region, but it hasn’t kept up with the need.
https://www.laalmanac.com/weather/we13.php
“The last three decades have been much drier than normal”.
Actually they haven’t
https://www.laalmanac.com/images5/chart-rainfall-LA-1887-2024.jpg
Error 403 – ForbiddenYou don’t have permission to access the requested resource. Please contact the web site owner for further assistance.
It is the chart that can be found on the link that I posted. Evidently directly linking to the jpg isn’t permitted by the host site. I presume OutOfNowhere was just emphasizing the point I made.
Works now. Nice chart!
Remember 80s they would not allow dry bush removal as not disturb kangaroo rats home 😆😆😳? 60 min did big story on it then
As the leftist hero Obama once said: “Elections have consequences.” LA elected a DEI grifter who appoints other DEI grifters to positions of responsibility even though they are incompetent. Maybe the rich liberals in LA will have an epiphany. I doubt it.
As one’s $10,000,000 plus home burns down that wasn’t insured because theirs got cancelled last summer might trigger a little bit of searching for answers beyond blaming it on climate change? These are mostly LA’s elites homes that are burning..
Forests don’t need management. Forests managed themselves quite succesfully for millions of years prior to humans coming along. 100 years of fire suppression is just as moronic as rebuilding beaches in the outer banks to prevent homes from slipping into the sea. In either case nature eventually wins, often with devastating consequences as mother nature reasserts the nature equilibrium.
Excellent article Mish. Common sense has lost its way.
Bernie* is a lying, grifting, wh-re sheepdog.
Even the Crook County Forest Preserve District Chicago metro (and DuPage County) do regularly scheduled controlled burns and remove excess fallen kindling as trees, and branches die and fall and after storms. .
Prescribed Burning – Forest Preserves of Cook County
*only the deep state knows his ultimate motivation….
Nice summary.
LA budget is $45-50B total. Who knows where it goes except bureaucrats doing bureaucracy.
Very sad and stupid. Our area (southern Oregon) suffered what for us was a massive fire Labor Day Week 2021. The Almeda Fire was arson-started in a 60-mile wind event. 2300+ homes and businesses destroyed in Phoenix/Ashland/Talent and parts of south Medford. The arson has never been solved but even today the Greens talk about being from “Climate Change”. Yep, Climate Change for us was rumored to have come wearing Black Bloc. But we can’t have more reservoirs and dams for beneficial water use because…magic fish. /sarc