California fires

Jules said:
Living on the left side of Canada (BC), we live in fear of fires. There’ve been many more lately. Climate change has allowed many pests like Pine Bark Beetles to multiply and destroy our forests. Once these dead trees are on fire, the spread within and out of these massive zones is rapid.
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Effective and safe insecticides for pine bark beetle have been available for decades. In addition, dead trees should be cleared thus discouraging arsonists.

Sounds like your forest management people are falling down on the job. Sort of like those in Washington, Oregon, and California caretakers of their environments.
 

Damaged Goods said:
Effective and safe insecticides for pine bark beetle have been available for decades. In addition, dead trees should be cleared thus discouraging arsonists.
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Show me scientific facts about this. The only thing that kills bark beetles is prolonged exposure at -40 for weeks. Since there are tens of thousands of hectares of dead trees, your idea of tidying up is impossible.
They can’t keep up with the logging & removal.

Have you ever worked in the forest industry?
 
It's my understanding that direct injection of various pesticides into the bark of conifers is effective and environmentally sound. Your custodians should have acted instead of allowing 10,000 hectares of dead wood to accumulate.

My connection with trees is limited to the years 1976-84 when I personally planted 1,000 trees on my property, a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, not for tree hugging reasons but rather to reduce the amount of grass that I had to mow.

So tell me, what's your solution to keep the climate from changing? And when you come up with a solution, you gonna run it by India, Russia, and Communist China?

So much whining ... but no solutions.

Seems like it was in the 1970s or 80s when Time magazine was warning us about the new Ice Age.
 

Damaged Goods said:
So tell me, what's your solution to keep the climate from changing? And when you come up with a solution, you gonna run it by India, Russia, and Communist China? So much whining ... but no solutions.
Seems like it was in the 1970s or 80s when Time magazine was warning us about the new Ice Age.
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You are right when you suggest warnings about climate change have been around for most of our lives, of differing kinds.
However, you seem unaware Communist China has announced very ambitious plans to curb carbon dioxide emissions to net zero, so maybe they have a plan, and look prepared to lead others, if they'll follow.
 
Yeah, the ChiComs are always honest and upstanding, just like they were when the Wuhan Red Death "escaped" from their control.

They won't do anything whatsoever that would stymie or impair their quest to be the top economic power in the world.

And even if what they say is true, would their plan stop the climate from changing?
 
Damaged Goods said:
Yeah, the ChiComs are always honest and upstanding, just like they were when the Wuhan Red Death "escaped" from their control.
They won't do anything whatsoever that would stymie or impair their quest to be the top economic power in the world.
And even if what they say is true, would their plan stop the climate from changing?
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I'm only saying the Chinese say they have a plan to reduce to net zero in a tighter time frame than most so far, and I cant blame anyone for being sceptical about it, or whether it is a plan that might work if it were applied effectively, but it would at least appear it might be unfair to say they had no plan(?).
 
If you don't mind I prefer a more conservative approach, or more conservation minded response, to threats where everyone's future might be at stake, (call me risk averse if you like, and I admit to being from a long line of people who dislike waste or over extravagance :oops:)!
 
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Doesn't exactly inspire confidence, does it? First it was global cooling, then global warming. When meteorologists can predict the weather a week in advance I’ll listen.
 
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JB in SC said:
Doesn't exactly inspire confidence, does it? First it was global cooling, then global warming. When meteorologists can predict the weather a week in advance I’ll listen.
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I think it worth acknowledging meteorologists nowadays do say any forecast they might make over four days in advance come with a warning as to their uncertainty, (maybe connected to "chaos theory"?).
On the otherhand, if you were to look at carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, said to be connected to climate change, and believe historical figures are accurate, then making an impact in terms of reducing levels of carbon dioxide takes years/decades. It isn't really comparable with predicting weather a week in advance, (were that possible to do 100% accurately).
 
JB in SC said:
Doesn't exactly inspire confidence, does it? First it was global cooling, then global warming. When meteorologists can predict the weather a week in advance I’ll listen.
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Can you point to any credible studies that predicted global cooling published in the last three decades? I think not. There are some people who say that we will be experiencing global cooling instead of global warming but I'm unaware of any of them that have published a credible, peer reviewed paper with their study and data to back up their claims. So the scientific community as a whole has not gone back and forth between global cooling and global warming and is 90%+ behind the studies which predict warming.

You are comparing apples and oranges when trying to equate accuracy of local weather predictions and climate change predictions. In fact climate change is making local weather predictions less accurate because the patterns and conditions that have been used to build the weather forecasting models are no longer as stable as they were in the past.

In addition it's very easy to tell what will happen to a closed system when one adds more CO2 or another greenhouse gas to that system. We also know what happens around the world when oceans are warmer or cooler because those changes have occurred naturally and we have observed the results. You can't say that for example Houston will be hit by more hurricanes when the Caribbean and equatorial Atlantic are warmer but you can say that the chances of having more hurricanes is higher.
 
Bonnie said:
Colorado is also getting large scale wildfires ... too many drought conditions in the West
https://www.denverpost.com/news/colorado/colorado-wildfires/
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Yes, I've spoken to my Sister, in Denver, and she said the fires are really bad in the mountains. There have been days when the wind shifted, and covered the Denver area with haze and smoke. Further North, several towns have had to be evacuated, and a couple of our cousins who have cabins in the mountains are worried that their properties might be burned. Much of the Western half of the US has had drought conditions this year, while here in the Midwest and the eastern half of the nation, the rainfall amounts are well above normal.
 
JB in SC said:
Doesn't exactly inspire confidence, does it? First it was global cooling, then global warming. When meteorologists can predithect the weather a week in advance I’ll listen.
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In addition to what asp3 said, the fact that some meteorologists in the past predicted something that didn't happen, proves nothing at all about current studies and predictions. Science has moved forward by leaps and bounds, and weather/climate prediction has improved enormously since the 1970's. We might as well go back to the days when fortune tellers read tea leaves. Science does keep improving and changing all the time.

I don't know what they said about "global cooling" 50 years ago, but isn't that really pretty irrelevant?
 
Pecos said:
My Grandson has been fighting fires in Northern California for several week, normally he fights fires in Washington State or Oregon. I hate to think of what inhaling all that smoke is going to do to his long-term health. The last I heard, he was assigned to the Red Salmon fire up in the mountains.

I love him, admire his courage, and worry about him a lot.View attachment 127665
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My Grandson has been moved back to Washington State and is fighting fires North of Spokane.
This is turning out to be an extremely long fire season this year.
 
My friend isn't in danger of having to evacuate because the fires aren't coming her way but she said due to the air quality and ash that's been coating her S.O.'s car, they can't even sit outside and enjoy the backyard they worked so hard to remodel. She hardly goes outside now.
 


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