That Trump Wrong About California Wildfires
A camp fire in northern California has just become the deadliest in state history; the Wolsey fire in the south engulfed Malibu; and our president is evasively tweeting about the logging industry. Welcome to 2018.
Everyone from firefighters to CNN meteorologists knows this is wrong, wrong, wrong, so let’s get it straight:
These are not all “forest” fires
The camp fire did start in a forested area, but not in southern California. As the Pasadena Firefighters Association replied , they are best described as “junction fires” – in other words, those that start in places where houses are built among combustible vegetation .
Wildfire is a more accurate term that includes wildfires, grassland fires, and more. So, if you imagine only burning trees, then you have a wrong image in your head.
There is one big reason for these massive, deadly and costly wildfires.
Changing of the climate. Do we really have to do this again?
Of the 10 most devastating fires in California, nine have occurred in the past 15 years. Five refer to 2017 and 2018.
The recipe for these campfires requires a few common ingredients :
- Houses in close proximity to combustible vegetation
- Dry weather makes this vegetation very flammable.
- High pressure winds from jet stream occurring around this time of year.
The hotter California gets, the drier it gets. And because of the extreme drought, vegetation – not only trees, but also bushes and grass – burns more easily. The drier the land, the less spark it takes to ignite.
Hot, dry gusts of wind then suck in even more moisture, and they push the fire forward, pelting houses with coals and other fuels in their path. See how this disgruntled meteorologist explains it better than me.
“Forest management” can be the whistle for the logging industry.
Politicians, including Interior Minister Ryan Zinke, advocate “fuel reduction management.” The thought seems to be this: remove the forest and you won’t be able to get forest fires.
In fact, this means opening up land for logging. But, as Outside explains here , logging is ineffective at removing the fuels that wildfires thrive on. Lumberjacks want to take the largest and most commercially valuable trees, and keep the seedlings and bushes. Guess what really lights up well? Yeah. Saplings and brush.
Funding is needed to prevent fires and help affected communities.
It is unclear what federal funding could be removed from view and improved fire management. In any case, most of the burning territory is federal lands . And by 2020, the U.S. Forest Service still has to cannibalize its own firefighting budget to find money to put out fires that are already going out. (The practice, dubbed “borrowing under fire,” was finally phased out by a bill passed by Congress earlier this year.)
Fighting forest fires is more expensive every year as the fires get worse. Another interesting aspect of life in 2018.