Biden addressing National Fire Administration - 10/10/2023
https://www.miragenews.com/biden-addresses-fire-prevention-at-us-fire-1100987/
Climate change-fueled wildfires are costing the US economy between $394 billion to $893 billion annually, a new congressional report suggests – a shocking figure that is more than double what previous government reports have estimated.
Nov 7, 2023. Wind Advisories and Red Flags in Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. Dense Fog in Kansas.
No fire-related advisories or watches for the Southeast, at this time, although it seems like there has been an uptick of IA fires with a couple going extended. Maybe, a normal pattern exacerbated by drought conditions?
Expecting some light precip east of the Mississippi River this week.
When people spend the majority of their time wrapped up with jobs and kids, and kids and jobs, it can be difficult to sustain talks and discussions about the natural environment, at all, except for the occasional park holiday. I think a lot of social controversy, including undeserved remonstration, is caused by resigning oneself to having to run on raw instinct when confronted by nature. I get frustrated by news hour media that misses opportunities to apply journalistic talent and do stories on what’s going on in the lands around them. I appreciate your willingness to step into the batter’s box, Zeke. I hope you consider teaching in your old age.
https://dailytrojan.com/2023/11/20/usc-study-tries-using-bananas-to-stop-wildfires/
Duh. It’s good to research forestry practices and their relationships with destructive wildfires, but data-driven models often fail to account for rather obvious things that make the model’s output somewhat irrelevant.
Of course, water-rich vegetation is less of a fire hazard, until it is starved of water by budget shortfall, or economic recession, and then dies and is now a light, flashy fuel with a high energy content that burns hotter.
Of course, drought conditions increase fire hazard by reducing fuel moistures.
Of course, drought conditions create water deficits that make water less available.
Of course, omitting budget factors can make proposals look more appealing.
Of course, this study was not required to make account of water budgets in drought conditions.
Of course, you don’t get something for nothing.
Bananas.
There’s a rather poignant example from Hawaii. The plantations around the towns did in fact grow well-maintained, water-rich vegetation, and then, because the growers found more lucrative things to do with their capital, the lands were left in minimal maintenance mode. In this case, drought has a compounding factor that not only increases fire risk from reduced water content in vegetation, but also causes, or is a causal factor, in a flight of capital that makes the water deficit even worse by failure to rehabilitate the land into reasonable ecological conditions, afterward. Of course, fire hazard can be reduced by turning arid land into jungle, but where do you get the water and the payroll?
Joe sets everything on fire