California is burning. Power outages are rampant. Death Valley recorded its highest daytime temperature (130°F) in 107+ years last week. What’s going on? Are flesh eating pedophiles or Deep State agents responsible? No. According to scientists, it’s the result of a hotter environment, the fruition of the climate apocalypse they have been predicting for nearly half a century.
1 Like
No, it’s normal, natural; lightning, with an unquantifiable contribution from climate change. What climate apocalypse?
With the addition of the quantifiable contribution from the suppression of natural wildfires that are a part of that ecosystem. Which, BTW, people have been pointing out for years to no effect.
2 Likes
I posted this on FB yesterday. A before/after of the haze from the California fires affecting air quality in Albuquerque (800 miles from LA)
You don’t think they manage their forests?
“Managing forests” often means preventing wildfires. This allows for the accumulation of unnatural levels of undergrowth so that the fires that do happen are much bigger. Another way to put it is that these forests did just fine without management for millennia. Fire is a very natural part of forest ecosystems.
1 Like
I hear in Washington they think we let them get too messy. Nature: so untidy.
We’ve got fires burning to the South, East and North of us in the bay area. Air quality has been sufficient to keep me in doors. But we got a teensy bit of rain last night (along with more lightening) and the map showed we’re in the green again in Berkeley. My friends just over the coastal range are not so lucky.
It’s not so much undergrowth as the accumulation of dead trees and fallen branches on the forest floor. Our national forests are filled with 50-100 years of dried kindling on the ground, which makes the fires that do occur even hotter and more destructive than ever.
I’ve heard it is necessary for redwoods since the seed pods are so hard they must be burned away for the seeds to be released and sprout.
Don’t they do controlled burns to prevent undergrowth buildup?
Only rarely, and only in limited areas. I would hazard a guess that there are many regions where controlled fires aren’t even possible.
From what I remember of the scrub oak ecosystems in California, they are meant to burn. Many of the species naturally make chemicals that produce hotter and more ferocious fires. Invasive species can also be a problem, such as cheatgrass in my area of the country which came over from the Mediterranean region. Cheatgrass evolved to burn hot, kill everything around it, and then have its seeds sprout in the aftermath. Nasty stuff.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 6 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.