Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

California's Dixie Fire Is Now the 2nd Largest in State History

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–58 of 58 posts

Re: California's Dixie Fire Is Now the 2nd Largest in State History

#51

Post by dillondoyle »

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #25

The Federal Government, who has been partially in charge of the Dixie Fire, has a more relaxed approach to wildfires. The recent River fire was fought with California management and resources. It was put down within a day. I really don't think the Federal Government should be able to own so much land in a state. The state of California is closer to the land and could manage it better in my opinion. The forests need t…

I wonder what the net benefit would be though. I can definitely see CA doing a better job in terms of climate.

But give Alaska or many mountain West control of federal lands they likely would be leased out to polluting corps at breakneck pace.

Tweaking executive controlled land policies and making Monument designations has been effective on both sides of fighting climate catastrophe...

Re: California's Dixie Fire Is Now the 2nd Largest in State History

#52

Post by s1artibartfast »

morio wrote: post #34
okareaman wrote: post #3

At least we saw it coming and made some preparations. I think climate change is a massive problem but we can't put it all on climate change because droughts are part of California history and we can put some of the blame on forest management practices. 100 million dead trees in the Sierra are a massive risk for unpredictable wildfires https://news.berkeley.edu/2018/01/18/sierra-wildfire-risk/ Fire Suppression — And C…

These extreme fire events extend across the entire Northern hemisphere right now (Oregon, Washington, Montana, Greece, Turkey, Siberia etc.). Blaming California specific forest management practices is disingenuous at best.

There are two problems that required to Solutions. Many of the areas that are burning now had a burn interval I'm less than 5 years prior to Federal wildfire suppression. They haven't burned in the last 150 years because of this. This is a real problem that needs to be addressed on top of climate change.

Re: California's Dixie Fire Is Now the 2nd Largest in State History

#53

Post by s1artibartfast »

kevinventullo wrote: post #42
throwawayboise wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you honestly say that any president really understands the science of wildfires (or anything else -- perhaps Jimmy Carter excepted, he did understand the science of nuclear reactors).

Probably not, which is why all but one of them tended to defer to hired experts on many issues instead of spouting the first thing that popped into their head.

This is been a problem a hundred years plus in the making. You can't blame just one president

Re: California's Dixie Fire Is Now the 2nd Largest in State History

#54

Post by saghm »

BobbyJo wrote: post #46
morio wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These extreme fire events extend across the entire Northern hemisphere right now (Oregon, Washington, Montana, Greece, Turkey, Siberia etc.). Blaming California specific forest management practices is disingenuous at best.

How does the fires being common across the region absolve California of the accusation of mismanagement? Isn't that more damning?

Calling "the entire northern hemisphere" a "region" is a bit of a stretch; GP is presumably referring to the summer season (which is not shared by the southern hemisphere at this time), not proximity to California.

Re: California's Dixie Fire Is Now the 2nd Largest in State History

#55

Post by throwawaysea »

okareaman wrote: post #3

At least we saw it coming and made some preparations. I think climate change is a massive problem but we can't put it all on climate change because droughts are part of California history and we can put some of the blame on forest management practices. 100 million dead trees in the Sierra are a massive risk for unpredictable wildfires https://news.berkeley.edu/2018/01/18/sierra-wildfire-risk/ Fire Suppression — And C…

Here's a great talk from a Forest Service expert on why wildfires have become worse. The TLDR is that forests have become much denser, particularly after old trees were logged, and this creates large areas of fuel. Additionally, forests need active management - prescribed burns, dry fuel cleanup, pest management, etc. Climate change may be aggravating or amplifying the intensity of wildfires but there are other causes that are potentially more important, and they present opportunities for wildfire prevention that are currently ignored by governments/news media/social media.

https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_hessburg_why_wildfires_have_g...

Re: California's Dixie Fire Is Now the 2nd Largest in State History

#56

Post by _y5hn »

sgc wrote: post #50
morio wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These extreme fire events extend across the entire Northern hemisphere right now (Oregon, Washington, Montana, Greece, Turkey, Siberia etc.). Blaming California specific forest management practices is disingenuous at best.

They are mainly Federal lands and so it is mainly Federal policy and practice that would be to blame in the US for that aspect of the causes. But the most obvious international common denominator is hotter, drier, windier weather - although I would not be surprised if many countries have similar "modern" responses to forest fires.

Forest management is bad overall, who will pay for it? In US/Canada the heat dome made for extreme weather. In Europe, record heat and rainfall causing extreme floods. We're having both, bad mitigation and climate catastrophe, going on. Plus Covid, pretty much following Hopi prophecies.

Re: California's Dixie Fire Is Now the 2nd Largest in State History

#57

Post by okareaman »

thinkcontext wrote: post #47
rcurry wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, now that he’s gone who do we pin the blame on?

The post you are replying to did not blame Trump for the fires, it said he was incoherent and incorrect in assigning blame. He continues to do both of those things in his role of King of the GOP, so there's no reason to stop pinning blame on him for things he is doing.

Thank you. I sometimes wonder if it is that I don't write clearly enough or if some people have poor reading comprehension. Perhaps both.

Re: California's Dixie Fire Is Now the 2nd Largest in State History

#58

Post by rcurry »

okareaman wrote: post #57
thinkcontext wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The post you are replying to did not blame Trump for the fires, it said he was incoherent and incorrect in assigning blame. He continues to do both of those things in his role of King of the GOP, so there's no reason to stop pinning blame on him for things he is doing.

Thank you. I sometimes wonder if it is that I don't write clearly enough or if some people have poor reading comprehension. Perhaps both.

Ad hominem attacks aside, the question remains. Now that #OrangeManBad isn't here, who, exactly is,as you say, "the problem"? From what I've seen, Californians have a bad habit of electing people who can't accomplish anything, and then blame their woes on people who are so far removed from being able to have any influence that it's laughable. The forestry service under Trump is the same forestry service that logged (pardon the pun) eight years under Obama. What did Obama do to mitigate the fires? The Dixie fire continues to burn without restrainnt, what's the solution? Frankly, as much as I don't like the man, Trump is right - when it comes to forest fires in CA, it's kind of your mess to clean up. Drive down any road on the coast and you'll find acres of arroyos full to the brim with deadwood - literal tinderboxes that nobody is cleaning up. Okay, 50x% of the forests belong to the Federal Government? Cool, don't build your houses within a half mile firebreak of them. The other 50%? Well, gosh, I guess you all should have a chat or something.
Post reply on HN