Californian Fires

[pkt]

In4,

I guess the difference is the scale. How many people are affected by the Ca fires, 2,000 homes got burned to the ground beofre the fog rolled in and the snow came.
How many desert NOMADS live in the deserts of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas?
Someone can correct me, but I think there are more people living in the affected counties than all those nomads and "the Anasazi and the Hohokam, the Apache and the Navajo and the Hopi" added together.

You're right, the fires burned not in the desert area. But don't you think that the fact that that part of S. Cal has been in a drought for the last 4 years and the fire are surefire signs of pending desertification?

Yes, the fires in Cal was allegedly started by a hunter seeking help. But some of the fires in the Okanagans were started by lightning strikes. the same could have happened in Cal.

Do you think that the areas in question could support the existing population without the Hoover Dam? What's the solution to the impending fight for water now that there are more people living in Nevada and they want THEIR water to stay w/i their state boundaries? rather than being used by Californians to water their lawns, wash their cars and fill their pools? Perhaps Cal and the Feds should seriously consider building desalination plants and restrict, if not ban non-life-supporting use of water.

The forest fires are but the symptoms of the sickness. What are the real causes of the disease? Global warming? Yes. The ice floes in the Arctic, the ice sheets in the Antartic, the glaciers high up in the mountains are melting. What are YOU doing about it?

I know what I've been doing, do you?

PK

[Inquartata]

Originally posted by pkt
the Ca fires, 2,000 homes got burned to the ground

The last figure I saw was 3,750.

Do you think that the areas in question could support the existing population without the Hoover Dam?

No, but this isn't really a question that can be confined to the deserts. Ask whether any region could support its entire population, urban and rural, without the crucial technological infrastructure which sustains it now? Could even the Midwest support itself if the people in the cities had to live by farming, hunting, fishing and herding? Can you think of any place on earth which could be self-sufficient with a 21st century population with a 19th century industrial level?

What's the solution to the impending fight for water now that there are more people living in Nevada and they want THEIR water to stay w/i their state boundaries? rather than being used by Californians to water their lawns, wash their cars and fill their pools?

This is an endless cycle. Arizona objects to Nevada and California drawing off more and more of their quotas of water from the Colorado. Meanwhile Mexican farmers and fishermen are left holding the bag because the river dwindles to a trickle by the time it gets to their border, having been drained north of it...

The forest fires are but the symptoms of the sickness. What are the real causes of the disease? Global warming? Yes. The ice floes in the Arctic, the ice sheets in the Antartic, the glaciers high up in the mountains are melting. What are YOU doing about it?

Nothing. Because in my estimation it has not yet been proven that anything NEEDS to be done---or perhaps more importantly, that what the Church of Global Warming insists must BE done would not be worse than what it seeks to cure. ( That's the problem with policy measures based on long-term predictions emerging from imperfect models designed by scientists who understand about 10% the variables which affect climate: the law of unintended consequences looms really, really large. Then throw politics into the mix and you have the potential to go from possibly large but slow and adaptable climate change to immediate unavoidable disaster. )

[MyraTrue]

You know, I grew up in Idaho, and this isn't a problem confined to California. Southern Idaho is desert, as is central (possible more?) of Washington. It is often rainy in the spring, but by about August, everything is crispy and dry. Thats why fires are such an issue. I remember my first summer in Indiana, and I was shocked there was green grass at the end of the summer. It should all be sere brown!

The real trouble is, in this part of the country, "underbrush" is easy to come by. The plants that typically make up underbrush deal well with dry climates, and they burn wonderfully. They grow wonderfully too.

Before you go pointing fingers about lawn waterers, there is some reason for this. Granted, there is the idea that you don't need to water THAT much (and this applies less in towns). But my parents place is about 5 miles out of town, and in the fire path, if there is one (it has been before). We own about 4 acres, and we make sure to keep things green, not only to graze livestock, but because it acts as a fire break.

And to finish off my absent stand on an unlabeled soap box- this area of the country's always been prone to fire. The difference is, the Indians had some pretty good managment techniques, including controlled burn. But we don't do that anymore, so when a fire starts- due to hunters, fireworks, someone's cigarette on the freeway, lightening, a house fire, you name it- it goes and there's no stopping it.

er... *kicks my soap box back under the counter* Anyway....

[OCTAVIA]

never fear: We almost had one here also, they seem to go in cycles, about 7 years ago when el nino was in a wind/dry cycle there were lots of fires around, then we went into a nino/wet cycle and no fires for a while.

That's the news from around here, also, check out, we had giant sun flares which sort of changes things.

[Sabresque]

Uh oh, if we get into an argument on water rights this'll get dirty.

[MyraTrue]

Not a problem here- as we get ours from the aquifer.

Actually, there was a fire started by a small town just about 15 minutes from where I live on this past Friday. Drving along, and here is a mountain in flame. VERY disconcerting, very distracting.

Even weirder was driving back home Monday night... the fire hadn't been put out I guess, because I get about 15 minutes from where I'd seen the first fire, and suddenly I realize that there is a line of trees on fire not 30 feet away. I was, however, more interested in not sliding off on the icy grade, so I ignored the flaming trees.

[arcon]

hmmmm Death by falling or death by fire.......id choose falling.
Wow, again. I just thought of all those poor individuals who jumped off the Twin Towers. Its still hard to believe.