The Burned Convention

 

We know that soaring temperatures, accelerating climate change creating bone dry tinder-laden forests ready to explode into incendiary hell from almost any spark, from lightening to a careless cigarette or campfire to a power-crazed arsonist, are all over the Western United States. California is the poster-state for wildfires. The buildup of dry brush and dead trees is a catastrophe waiting to happen… except it has already happened. And although, we are hardly over the wildfire challenge for even this year, California is already $200 million overbudget in fire suppression.

As smoke fills the skies all over the West, the once in a hundred years or even five hundred years forest blaze is happening every year, and often more than once in a single season. “1 of every 8 acres in California has burned in the last 10 years… Nine of the state’s 10 largest wildfires since 1932, when modern records began, have occurred in the past decade. And amazingly, the eight largest have all burned since 2017. Why?... ‘It’s a combination of everything — climate change, decades of fire suppression and drought,’ said Craig Clements, director of San Jose State University’s Fire Weather Lab… Some fire experts call them ‘megafires,’ blazes larger than 100,000 acres that once were rare but are becoming increasingly common.” EastBayTimes.com, September 29th.

Some of these fires have embraced red states like Wyoming and Idaho in a very big way, states that participate in an overall Republican minimization of the reality of climate change, as evidenced by GOP cutbacks to climate change infrastructure provisions in various bills in Congress. Yet vast stretches of land, under federal and not state control, are facing the same fire experience that Western state fire services are facing. And we are learning, too often the hard way, that we need to approach these fires and potential fires in an entirely new way.

This year ‘has been devastating in not only the size and frequency of large wildfires but also in terms of sustained activity,’ U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore testified at a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry… Moore blamed the severity of recent fire seasons on extreme drought, a warming climate and a century of ‘overly aggressive suppression policies’ that have made forests ripe for more destructive fires… About 46,000 fires have burned nearly 6 million acres across the West this year, destroying 4,500 structures and killing four federal firefighters, Moore said.

“The federal government has deployed about 27,000 firefighters this year, but they are still stretched thin. The problem reached a critical point over the summer with a burst of early wildfires in the West amid extreme staffing shortages… A combination of low pay, competition from state and local fire departments, and exhaustion from longer and more destructive fire seasons has left federal agencies scrambling to fill positions.

“‘We have seen highly trained personnel leave the Forest Service; we have experienced some inability to recruit new employees; and we are in a constant mode of training new employees,’ Moore said in prepared testimony… The Biden administration this year boosted the minimum wage for federal firefighters from $13 to $15 per hour, enabling the federal government to attract firefighters in states such as California and Washington, where pay was higher.” Erin B. Logan writing for the September 30th Los Angeles Times.

CBS News (September 26th) describes some of the new approaches to firefighting, now adding the capacity of continuing water and retardant aerial drops at night: “California is burning — on track for the most savage fire year in its history. Drought and scorching temperatures have turbocharged fires that are more extreme than ever. Two of the biggest fires in state history have laid siege to more than a million acres in Northern California, burning dangerously close to Lake Tahoe. Firefighters haven't had a day off in months. Fire chiefs warn there aren't enough aircraft to go around. ‘It's a war,’ one told us. Now, fire chiefs from Southern California have stolen a page from the military: take the fight to the night. A new fleet of hi-tech helicopters will fight wildfires 24/7. And for the first time, the giant Chinook — you've seen them in other war zones — will lead the night assault. It's an $18 million pilot program the fire chiefs hope will be a game changer.

“The U.S. Forest Service was already short-staffed when the Caldor Fire exploded last month {August], churning toward South Lake Tahoe. Thousands of residents were forced to flee. To the north, the Dixie Fire has been rampaging for months, demolishing historic gold rush towns. The drought-parched forests burn so hot they generate their own fire tornados. Between the two infernos, more than 8,000 bone-weary firefighters have been waging a relentless battle. Orange County Fire Chief Brian Fennessy — a former Hotshot who's been fighting fires in Southern California for 44 years — told us there is no more give in the system.” We also know that we have not seen the worst of the impact of rising temperatures on bone dry forests… and we also have to recognize the reality of mud and landslides when rain does begin to fall after the fires are stopped.

I’m Peter Dekom, and all minimizing the impact of global warming will do is to make bad into worse and worse into horrible.