From the Washington Times, idiocy only bureaucrats could muster:
“Since man first rubbed a pair of sticks together to make a fire, we’ve gathered around a campfire to cook food, enjoy good company and bask in the warmth of the glowing embers. Now the green spoilsports in Southern California want to take that all way, sending beach ring fire pits the way of the caveman.The South Coast Air Quality Management District will decide this summer whether to order the removal of 850 bonfire pits from Los Angeles and Orange county beaches on the pretense that fire is bad for the environment. To support its position, the agency concocted a study concluding that an evening beach fire creates as much particulate matter pollution as a diesel truck driving 564 miles
Man’s taming of fire enabled him to cook his food, bring light to the darkness, make stronger tools and survive the harshest of winters. It’s the one discovery upon which all civilizations are built. The assault on bonfires, fireplaces and stoves undermines one of the cornerstones of society. It’s what happens when government gets big enough to snuff out man’s greatest achievement.”
EDITORIAL: California to ban fire – Washington Times
OMG, as much as one diesel truck driving 564 miles.
Lessee, its about 700 miles from the California-Oregon border on Interstate 5 to the beach in Orange County.
Why not simply turn back one Orange County bound diesel truck a day at the California border agricultural inspection station to achieve that goal?
Oh, wait, that would be stupid.
More here: http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_23274978/wood-fire-pits-could-pose-health-problems-beach
This is a travesty. They should first ban hair spray, then ban commuting by CA EPA workers using anything other than bicycles, then ban deficit spending. Get the priorities straight!
Don’t you have night time land breeze down there blowing the smoke seaward ?
I grew up in So. California and enjoyed campfires at the beach with friends at both Corona del Mar and Huntington Beach. Huntington beach is in a wide open flat area and if you take the satellite view on Google Map you can see the fire pits on the beach. The area just inland from them is pretty flat. There is also a lot of parking at Huntington Beach as a result of the topography of the ground. The folks that live at Huntington Beach aren’t complaining about fire pits that I am aware of. At Corona del Mar where the complaint arose (according to a LA Times article), the beach with the fire pits sits at the bottom of a bluff so a lot of very expensive houses are located above and upwind of the fire pits. I can see how in this location, the smoke can rise up to the residences, particularly if there is a sea breeze as there often is later in the afternoon. The other thing Corona del Mar has little of is parking so I also suspect that many of the folks that come home after work in the summer probably find it difficult to park if they ever have to park on the street. Getting rid of of fire pits would solve both a smoke and a parking problem. I would not put it past the very well to do who live at Corona del Mar to use the fire pit smoke to create a smoke screen of sorts to force the poor riff-raff off their beach in the evenings.
I got my winds mixed up. The breeze at the Beach in California mostly blow from the ocean onto the shore so the homes are downwind.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District could buy a bunch of these
http://custom-fireplace.com/electric-fireplace/21.jpg
A slight redesign and connected to a battery and solar power charger would work well. Also, one would need a heating element for the burgers and marshmallows.
Guess the next best thing is to carry along an electric grill and a generator to the beaches then. Not as picturesque but it’ll do.
Robert of Ottawa said on May 24, 2013 at 10:28 am:
Of course not! You will have all the heat you need at night stored during the day in the stone walls and floors of your passive solar house.
And for lighting, just grow bioluminescent fungi on rotting sticks and logs. Move them around to where you need the light, and after the wood rots away you can use it in your all-organic garden.
Said garden could also be set up inside on those stone floors, at least part of the entire garden space you’ll need to survive. And did you know the interior of a properly decomposing manure/mulch pile can exceed 170°F? How much heat do you need to stay alive? You could heat a cup of water with temperatures like that. Having an indoor “composting heater” will also go well with the composting toilet that minimizes water use, necessary to make do with the rainwater gathered from the roof.
See, once you get used to living in a carefully-designed greenhouse, you will have warmth, light, and food. You will never have to burn anything ever. These people really want what’s best for you!
an evening beach fire creates as much particulate matter pollution as a diesel truck driving 564 miles
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and to total morons…that sounds scary
Are these the same idiots that banned clearing of underbrush in California to save the envronment also? You know the ones who create an environment for enhanced large fires due to that dead underbrush being an accelerent. How much particulate matter did they calculate they caused by their rediculous ignorance. Frankly, I am suprised anyone with a brain still lives in California. Just moving to Florida from there is like getting a 20% pay raise due to the tax differences (even more if you own a small business). Let alone the loonies that canh only exist in such a misguided state.
Do the math Anthony, and I will put you up while you find a new residence in Florida.
No earthquakes either 🙂
Here are the emission rates for American heavy duty diesel trucks
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/consumer/420f08027.pdf
It seems highly improbable that a single fire pit could possibly create as much emissions as one of these large trucks driving hundreds of miles.
tonyb
California promotional videos contain false advertising? No way!
http://youtu.be/ZAwqumoO0Ds
see 0:21 seconds.
I guess my first clue it was BS should’ve been Kim Kardashian reading a Quantum Physics book, huh? In my defense, she’s otherwise distracting.
Karl W. Braun said on May 24, 2013 at 11:32 am:
Noise ordinances! People in expensive homes are trying to sleep!
However in place of a generator you could drive your Chevy Volt onto the beach and plug the grill into that. Because that’s California-approved Green-ness with no carbon emissions. Feel free to crank up the stereo.
“I just had my engagement party … .” [Zeke H.]
CONGRATULATIONS!
Best wishes for many, many years of joy!
I do despair of western civilisation. I am an Englishman, a proud Gloucester man. I love the countryside and the traditions of my rural roots. This story is so close to the jobsworth health and safety idiocy that has seen the Coopers Hill cheese roll effectively banned since 2009. How I hate the self appointed protectors of our safety. I hope that common sense prevails here, although I am not holding my breath.
These people are so colossally stupid it should be considered a crime for them to be allowed to work in government. At some point, when they have broken everything good in western civilization, people will cast these imbeciles into a deep hole from which they cannot escape. I for one will not be saddened. of course this assumes we even get the opportunity to engage this decision, at the current rate muslims will have us over run…lovely world that the libtards are building.
I say we burn all members of the South Coast Air Quality Management District at the stake – on the beach
“I grew up in So. California and enjoyed campfires at the beach … .” [Sean] Well, you may still be quite young, but… it looks to me like a clear case of those homeowners’ “coming to the nuisance.” No wonder they want Big Brother to help them clear the beach.
In Washington, beaches are (if I remember correctly) public land from mean low to mean high tide marks. If that is true in CA, anti-campfire-smoking ban is the only way to get them (the riffraff) off the beach.
Yeah, norvejun, the Pacific is so cold that the prevailing evening breezes are westerlies. Not that this is relevant (IMO), given that the complainers came after the long established historical practice of beach fires.
Watch what happens…their first position is to ban all beach fires. What they actually want is to control the fires by issuing a permit for a fee.$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
As with the recent revelation that “CO2 makes your car hot”,
Teh stupid, it burns.
an evening beach fire creates as much particulate matter pollution as a diesel truck driving 564 miles
———————————————————————————————————————————-
Shows how clean trucks are.
Anthony: It well past time you left. California went nuts a long time ago.
I wish Nevada could sue California for their wildfires. The prevailing winds go east, so California doesn’t have to deal with hundreds of miles of brown and smoke filled sky like Nevada does when California is on fire. Our air quality in Reno when California burns is 10 times worse than I ever remember it was growing up in LA in the 70’s. Just one of those fires probably puts more “eeeeviillll” CO2 in the air than the entire state of Nevada does in 100 years.
California is the STUPID capitol of the world. That’s why we elect so may STUPID people to run our state.
As soon as the warmists started on about black/brown carbon this was always going to happen. B/B C is this years co2. Anyone with a log fire save up for the new tree tax. UK has gone mad for log burners, also burning trees in power stations, Doh.
Bob Diaz said on May 24, 2013 at 12:41 pm:
Anthony Watts for Chico city council!
Dilute the ill repute!
Sanity Now!