Guest essay by Larry Hamlin
Articles in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and Orange County Register address Governor Newsom’s declaration of a state of emergency to allow the state to waive environmental extremist laws and regulations that are needed so that Cal Fire can proceed with actions to clear dead trees, remove excessive undergrowth, thin out excessive tree growth and crowding, use prescribed fire, etc. to improve forest health and decrease Ca. wildfire risks.
California Governor Brown erroneously claimed that scientifically unsupported and nebulous “climate change” was driving the states wildfires while ignoring decades of pleas from forest and fire fighting professionals to address failed government and regulatory policies which were allowing the build up of excessive fuel which was leading to more intense and dangerous wildfires as addressed in a WUWT article as follows:
“In October 18, 2015 L. A. Times article wildfire experts unsupportive of Brown’s position noted that:
“Today’s forest fires are indeed larger than those of the past, said National Park Service climate change scientist Patrick Gonzalez.
At a symposium sponsored by Brown’s administration, Gonzalez presented research attributing that trend to policies of fighting the fires, which create thick under layers of growth, rather than allowing them to burn.
“We are living right now with a legacy of unnatural fire suppression of approximately a century,” Gonzalez told attendees.”
This century long policy of fire suppression and its impact of Ca. wildfires is further reflected in a 2015 University of California Berkeley study which noted:
“National parks and other protected areas clearly provide an important function in removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it,” said Battles. “But we also know from previous research that a century of fire suppression has contributed to a potentially unsustainable buildup of vegetation. This buildup provides abundant fuel for fires that contribute to carbon emissions.”
Before this state of emergency action by Governor Newsom the state ignored the comprehensive Little Hoover Commission report of February 2017 that laid out in detail the failure of states forest management and environmental polices which were found to be driving the increased wildfire intensity and damage.
Governor Newsom’s state of emergency declaration action is in accordance with recommendations contained in the most recent wildfire study by Cal Fire.
Governor Browns flawed and politically contrived claim of “climate change” driven wildfires was never supported by scientific data which shows that California has a long history going back centuries of extensive and severe droughts and that recent droughts are in fact less severe than the state has experienced in the past.
The Los Angeles Times article noted that some “experts” were in disagreement with the need for Governor Newsom to take these actions but the Governor rebutted these challenges as follows:.
“At the news conference, Newsom acknowledged the criticism, and rebutted it.
“Some people, you know, want to maintain our processes and they want to maintain our rules and protocols,” the governor said. “But I’m going to push back on that. Some of these projects quite literally, not figuratively, could take two years to get done, or we could get them done in the next two months. That’s our choice.”
Finally California has begun to address reality in dealing with the state wildfire debacle by acknowledging its role in building this huge problem instead of continuing to make phony “climate change” excuses for these wildfires.
This action should never have taken so long to occur but instead should have been initiated many years ago.
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Governor Moonbeam Brown might suddenly now notice the real cause of Californian Bushfires. It is the lack of forest management which was caused by a dangerous increase in the number of Climate Alarmists. Climate change is not responsible for any weather but it is responsible for the growth of group stupidity.
I know! Sell it all the UK as Biomass.
Win-win!
/sarc
A tip from Australia, … get rid of all of your eucalypts.
if only we could remove the majority! prickly acacia is protected and called kerosine bush for good reason..
but the birdies live in some
yeah
and so do foxes and rabbits!(and feral cats looking for a snack)
You mean “gum” trees, if speaking to Australians.
“California has begun to address reality in dealing with the state wildfire debacle by acknowledging its role in building this huge problem…”
So they’re going to charge those responsible for this “huge problem” that killed what 86? people. They are guilty as sin and they just acknowledged that. They need to prosecute the government not the electricity supplier.
Exactly right, Greg. The electricity suppliers were forced into this position by crappy regulations, phony “scientists,” the environmental law industry, and feeble politicians. Actual experts were ignored, belittled, and ridiculed for the past 30 years when assuring the obvious — these events were predictable, predicted, and largely preventable except for the nitwits in charge. I hope we have learned out lesson (though recent past history suggests not) and that the individuals and agencies truly responsible for these avoidable catastrophes are publicly and legally held accountable for their misdirections. It wasn’t the people who use electricity that should be falsely accused.
Better late than never, apparently. Professional foresters and many scientists have known for more than 25 years — and generally been ignored or ridiculed — that “climate change” was a feeble excuse for the disastrous wildfires that have killed hundreds of people and caused billions of dollars in damage the past three decades.
Rather, it has been the regulatory models emanating from Washington DC that have resulted in passive management policies regarding Wilderness areas, Endangered species listings, road decommissionings, etc., and other anti-active management actions that have predictably resulted in these events. They were clearly predicted and could have been largely prevented if people had simply listened to actual experts on these topics, rather than reverting to computer model jockeys and self-serving politicians for their misdirections and subsequent rationales.
These fires represent a modern-day form of Lysenkoism, where a centralized government using bogus “science” (modeling is not science — it is simply a tool) has resulted in widespread misery and death. Thank goodness for Californians and their wildlife that Governor Brown is gone and that Hillary Clinton wasn’t elected president. Maybe we have finally turned the corner back to common sense and active management of our forests. If so, better late than never.
The February 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria killed 173 people. One of the key recommendations of the Royal Commission that followed the tragedy was:
“RECOMMENDATION 56 The State fund and commit to implementing a long-term program of prescribed burning based on an annual rolling target of 5 per cent minimum of public land”
January and February in Victoria this year were hotter than usual. This followed a spring, autumn proscribed burning season when the green obsessed, socialist Left, Labor government of Victoria established pretty much an all-time low with only about 1 percent of public land subjected to fuel reduction burns. So we see bushfires to the east of Melbourne some of which started in February still burning in the ranges, part of Melbourne’s water catchment zone.
This picture, http://tiny.cc/jw6e4y was taken on 16 March 2009 in Central Victoria, about 100 miles from the fires.
My apologies, the picture linked in my comment above was not taken in 2009, it was taken this year on 16 March, 2019.
Don’t burning forests make that part of the earth warmer? Just aksin’.
The state tallies all the lost property tax revenue from all the cities destroyed, finds that the losses are increasing, and can either just eat all those income losses, or do something to stop it. Like good Democrats, big on taxes, and big on revenues, when their money supply is threatened they tell the environmentalists to go to hell and move quickly to protect their incomes.
You call THAT Gummint competence? THIS is Gummint competence-
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/weight-loss-drug-to-blame-for-bureaucrats-job-application-deception-court-told/ar-BBVbrZi
We need some weight loss medication around here alright. To get rid of the obesity in the public circus.
Monty Python eat yer heart out!
The elephant in the room nobody is addressing is arson. Yes, some of these criminals have been caught and convicted. Another type of arsonist is one that works as a firefighter with the BLM and Forest Service – these folks want and need hazard pay that this job provides and if there are no fires there is no hazard pay. As a teenager I lived near a BLM camp and these bored guys would complain about spending their summers idle making little money until miraculously, a fire started with no known cause.
So this is an admission of the policy victims of Gov. Brown and the California legislature and the Sierra Club.
Pray tell, will it involve “raking?”
I don’t get it…why is Newsom being reasonable?
What’s the trick?