161–170 of 241 posts
If only there were some good samaritans who would toss lit cigarettes out of their cars in the spring...
...then we would have a case of environmental terrorism. Terrorists like Gary Maynard, Alexandra Souverneva, Viola Liu... 800 wildfires in California in 2022 were arsons.
Did not the current wildfires in Alberta, Canada start with an attempted "controlled burn" gone awry?
So? Just because a process sometimes fails does not mean the solution is to change the process, and if you do, it doesn't mean the result will end up better overall. Expected value and all that.
This 'controlled burn' issue is a general principle in risk management as well, where you respond to minor issues so as to not let them pile up into a tinderbox inferno. Risk aversion isn't prudent, ethical, or professional either. It's a source of false conflict whose purpose is to centralize the objector so that they can direct and manage a proposed change. This is from someone who has been working in security for…
Disagree partly. Here we are preventing actively the natural circles of small fires in the lifecycle of a forest. We bring up that we need to introduce them at least in a controlled manner. Some people say no because xyz. Well these people need to cover the incalculable sometime damages that causes.
This illustrates a more generic problem with our legal system. When the option for positive action to mitigate a problem exists, we often don't do it because the action creates legal liability for any and all negative externalities of the action, even if the negative externalities as a whole are drastically less than what would happen doing nothing. We resist permitting prescribed burns because when they cause uninte…
The only federal regulation I saw referenced in the article were clean air regulations. Otherwise, it appears states and their residents are imposing additional barriers. And public opinion is a local issue of course as well. I don't know if it's really possible to change public ignorance, particularly if the strong opinions are political, so this might be a case where it makes sense for the federal government to ste…
The citizens of that state should step in and make the changes, not the federal government.
One of the big problems is that controlled burns can and do become uncontrolled burns. The largest ever wildfire in New Mexico was started as a planned burn (more honest label) just last year. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/05/2...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Was preventing the spread of covid throughout the population possible once China failed to contain the virus? Can you name one country that managed to do that? Even China eventually gave up.
> Was preventing the spread of covid throughout the population possible once China failed to contain the virus? It's not about preventing the spread, but about controlling the rate so that hospitals don't / didn't get overwhelmed. One of the early countries to get hit was Italy, and the army had to be called in to help with the logistics of taking away the body bags / coffins. A year after the pandemic started there…
The only federal regulation I saw referenced in the article were clean air regulations. Otherwise, it appears states and their residents are imposing additional barriers. And public opinion is a local issue of course as well. I don't know if it's really possible to change public ignorance, particularly if the strong opinions are political, so this might be a case where it makes sense for the federal government to ste…
This was my first thought as well. The title should be "Regulations make them nearly impossible [in Colorado]"
The fundamental problem that controlled burns face today is that there has been a huge and irresponsible increase in development on "Urban-wildland border". Here in the California Sierras, you have a uniform peppering of (often luxury) houses outside of the various small urban areas. Those forests naturally burn on a regular basis but with this situation, any controlled burn is going to threaten some number of houses…