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Show HN: LA Wildfire Satellite Analysis

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Re: Show HN: LA Wildfire Satellite Analysis

#31

Post by Mistletoe »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #21
hedora wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two issues. For thousands of years, indigenous people maintained the forest and small fires cleaned out the underbrush. The US halted maintenance, and suppressed fires, creating a backlog of fuel. The second issue is global warming. If you have any ideas on how to get the manpower necessary to perform 100+ years of backlogged forest maintenance spanning the entire west coast, or (better) how to fix global w…

You can extinguish a fire with salt water. Connect the sewage / storm water system to a few massive pumps and back flush everything. Set off a few nukes in the bay to cause a tidal wave. I’m no civil engineer / hydrologished, so there’s probably issues with my drive-by dismissal of a serious issue.

This is the most HN comment ever.

Re: Show HN: LA Wildfire Satellite Analysis

#32

Post by GaryNumanVevo »

hedora wrote: post #11
giancarlostoro wrote: post #2

I really don't understand why something that is presumed preventable with little investment is allowed to continue happening. What's worse is the water shortage is what I don't understand. It's a state literally bordering the ocean. That graph is impressive, and really shocking how much land these fires are just taking.

There are two issues. For thousands of years, indigenous people maintained the forest and small fires cleaned out the underbrush. The US halted maintenance, and suppressed fires, creating a backlog of fuel. The second issue is global warming. If you have any ideas on how to get the manpower necessary to perform 100+ years of backlogged forest maintenance spanning the entire west coast, or (better) how to fix global w…

This is a misnomer, Calfire does a lot of prescribed burns already. It's really difficult to do them safely around urban interfaces.

Re: Show HN: LA Wildfire Satellite Analysis

#33

Post by [deleted] »

polotics wrote: post #20
the_third_wave wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is nonsense, the climate has been changing all the time without the place burning down to the roots when it happened to be a bit warmer or not burning at all when it was cooler. These fires have nothing to do with 'climate change', they are caused by the lack of controlled burning which leads to an accumulation of combustible material on the forest floor. Once a fire starts - and fires start all the time, both f…

You wrote "the climate has been changing all the time" It must have taken you so much effort and thinking to come up with such an illuminating, novel, and profound assertion. Here is something of that ilk: The statement "the climate has been changing all the time" is often used to downplay the significance of current climate change. While it's true that Earth's climate has undergone natural changes throughout its his…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: LA Wildfire Satellite Analysis

#34

Post by vixen99 »

polotics wrote: post #20
the_third_wave wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is nonsense, the climate has been changing all the time without the place burning down to the roots when it happened to be a bit warmer or not burning at all when it was cooler. These fires have nothing to do with 'climate change', they are caused by the lack of controlled burning which leads to an accumulation of combustible material on the forest floor. Once a fire starts - and fires start all the time, both f…

You wrote "the climate has been changing all the time" It must have taken you so much effort and thinking to come up with such an illuminating, novel, and profound assertion. Here is something of that ilk: The statement "the climate has been changing all the time" is often used to downplay the significance of current climate change. While it's true that Earth's climate has undergone natural changes throughout its his…

Your comment comes across as markedly authoritative. Are you a climate scientist with first hand knowledge? You appear to be repeating what we all read in countless reports almost daily from innumerable organizations and have done over the past few years. I'm pretty sure like many here I could probably offer an impromptu talk like this at the drop of a hat, covering the same points.

I do wonder why we accept the reports from a number of rather distinguished climatologists and physicists who do not accept this 'scientific consensus'. Given the very significant swathe of the public who are convinced by the latter, why isn't this academic divide finally put to rest and the skeptics shown to be demonstrably wrong in their selection of data and their interpretations? It does not seem to happen. Why not? If this is an existential crisis I would have thought that such public debates at a very high level by extremely well-informed experts are well overdue. Yes, some occur but they are never definitive?

"Current surveys may underestimate climate change skepticism evidence from list experiments in Germany and the USA" https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8262789/

Re: Show HN: LA Wildfire Satellite Analysis

#35

Post by Redoubts »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #2

I really don't understand why something that is presumed preventable with little investment is allowed to continue happening. What's worse is the water shortage is what I don't understand. It's a state literally bordering the ocean. That graph is impressive, and really shocking how much land these fires are just taking.

The Sierra Club sues any attempt to do preventive burns. Forest management can take 4-7 years between planning and execution for any one task.

https://x.com/tahrajirari/status/1877110097790312519

Re: Show HN: LA Wildfire Satellite Analysis

#36

Post by Redoubts »

GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #32
hedora wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two issues. For thousands of years, indigenous people maintained the forest and small fires cleaned out the underbrush. The US halted maintenance, and suppressed fires, creating a backlog of fuel. The second issue is global warming. If you have any ideas on how to get the manpower necessary to perform 100+ years of backlogged forest maintenance spanning the entire west coast, or (better) how to fix global w…

This is a misnomer, Calfire does a lot of prescribed burns already. It's really difficult to do them safely around urban interfaces.

They also just get sued all the time for doing their job

https://x.com/alecstapp/status/1877114784149029252

https://x.com/alecstapp/status/1877145129351323920

Re: Show HN: LA Wildfire Satellite Analysis

#37

Post by hedora »

GaryNumanVevo wrote: post #32
hedora wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two issues. For thousands of years, indigenous people maintained the forest and small fires cleaned out the underbrush. The US halted maintenance, and suppressed fires, creating a backlog of fuel. The second issue is global warming. If you have any ideas on how to get the manpower necessary to perform 100+ years of backlogged forest maintenance spanning the entire west coast, or (better) how to fix global w…

This is a misnomer, Calfire does a lot of prescribed burns already. It's really difficult to do them safely around urban interfaces.

They do, but they’re still way behind where they need to be.

They also do shaded fire breaks, which make sense.

Re: Show HN: LA Wildfire Satellite Analysis

#38

Post by greentxt »

block_dagger wrote: post #6
giancarlostoro wrote: post #2

I really don't understand why something that is presumed preventable with little investment is allowed to continue happening. What's worse is the water shortage is what I don't understand. It's a state literally bordering the ocean. That graph is impressive, and really shocking how much land these fires are just taking.

Wildfires in California date back millions of years and are a natural part of the region's ecology. The difference in recent centuries has been dense human habitation. I think your statement about presumed prevention is inaccurate or misleading.

You make it sound unidimensional but there is probably not 1 type of wildfire in California. Coastal residentially dense fires in chaperal are not the same things as massive fires burning in remote areas of national forrests in the sierras. There is no single cause or solution because they are totally different things, with different drivers and requiring different solutions.

Re: Show HN: LA Wildfire Satellite Analysis

#39

Post by francisofascii »

hedora wrote: post #11
giancarlostoro wrote: post #2

I really don't understand why something that is presumed preventable with little investment is allowed to continue happening. What's worse is the water shortage is what I don't understand. It's a state literally bordering the ocean. That graph is impressive, and really shocking how much land these fires are just taking.

There are two issues. For thousands of years, indigenous people maintained the forest and small fires cleaned out the underbrush. The US halted maintenance, and suppressed fires, creating a backlog of fuel. The second issue is global warming. If you have any ideas on how to get the manpower necessary to perform 100+ years of backlogged forest maintenance spanning the entire west coast, or (better) how to fix global w…

> manpower necessary to perform 100+ years of backlogged forest maintenance spanning the entire west coast

Curious what is involved with this. If indigenous people could do it, why couldn't a larger population with superior tech do it? Sounds like a worthwhile venture. Even if it costs a fortune it might be better than rebuilding LA every 30-50 years.

Re: Show HN: LA Wildfire Satellite Analysis

#40

Post by edmundsauto »

vixen99 wrote: post #34
polotics wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You wrote "the climate has been changing all the time" It must have taken you so much effort and thinking to come up with such an illuminating, novel, and profound assertion. Here is something of that ilk: The statement "the climate has been changing all the time" is often used to downplay the significance of current climate change. While it's true that Earth's climate has undergone natural changes throughout its his…

Your comment comes across as markedly authoritative. Are you a climate scientist with first hand knowledge? You appear to be repeating what we all read in countless reports almost daily from innumerable organizations and have done over the past few years. I'm pretty sure like many here I could probably offer an impromptu talk like this at the drop of a hat, covering the same points. I do wonder why we accept the repo…

I do agree, the experts could do a better job of communicating to the parts of the public who may not understand the scientific consensus. But there is a broad swath of people who will reject any information, because it’s already been politicized to death. (Why this is political I can’t tell you)

But the public reception doesn’t really tell us much about the strength of the conclusions. For which there is overwhelming consensus, very clear mechanisms of action, and pretty straightforward directional signal.

Are you questioning the comms or the consensus? I’m not clear from your response.

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