A study in fake news, by me:
fake news Reality
First, the #
fakenews from #
CNN:
California's new normal: How the climate crisis is fueling wildfires and changing life in the Golden State Over here, the #
reality:
California’s government solely responsible for states forest management and wildfire debacle Excerpt: Excerpt:
It's getting hotter and hotter - California's getting scorched again. Here's how these #
fires compare to previous years. Hotter temperatures mean drier land. A parched atmosphere. It's that simple. In California, for instance, warm-season days have increased by 2.5 degrees since the early 1970s, according to a recent study published in the journal Earth's Future. "The clearest link between California #
wildfire and #
anthropogenic #
climate #
change thus far has been via warming-driven increases in atmospheric aridity, which works to dry fuels and promote summer #
forest fire," the report said. "It is well established that warming promotes #
wildfire throughout the western #
USA, particularly in forested regions, by enhancing atmospheric moisture demand and reducing summer soil moisture as snowpack declines." The #
inept #
government, #
political and #
regulatory policies of California have clearly driven the present forest management #
calamitous conditions with that failure leading to #
disastrous wildfires throughout the state. Those government and political leaders that are responsible for this situation that has been decades in the making have tried to #
conceal their #
incompetence by making #
scientifically #
unsupported #
propaganda claims that “climate change” caused this situation. These government driven #
problems are clearly identified in two recent reports – one by #
Cal Fire and the other by the California #
Legislative #
Analysts Office.
Here's a very real summary and commentary:
There is simply too much fuel in our state parks, national forests, and private lands in the form of #
trees and #
underbrush. #
California environmental regulations have made small #
logging #
operations #
unprofitable, and brush clearance is a part of logging. It’s hard work clearing land and people won’t do it unless allowed to #
profit from it. Anecdotally, friends have sunk $70,000 into permits and #
erosion mitigation to log their several hundred acre hunting property and still haven’t been allowed to start. #
Foresters confirm these costs and that they are insane since forests grow so quickly. The lack of logging and brush clearance is actually having a negative #
environmental impact since the brush is getting too dense for trees to grow healthily and #
diseases are spreading among the densely-packed oaks killing 20-30% of them and adding to the fuel. Without logging, the only other option is to gather brush and trees into big piles and burn it, but it’s tough to get burn permits which are managed by air quality management districts ( #
AQMDs) that are independent of county governments. These AQMDs also #
fine people burning wood in stoves.
In addition to the forest and underbrush growth, 95% of California #
grasslands turn brown each season since the Spanish replaced native grasses with grass better-suited to feeding #
grazing animals. There is little grazing anymore on our hillsides since sheep and goats have become #
unprofitable for a variety of reasons, including that #
mountain #
lions will eat a herd in a matter of weeks. Voters approved a mountain lion hunting ban in the 1970s.
The state is aware of the #
problems and #
solutions since its two of its agencies – Cal Fire and the Legislative Analyst’s Office – prepared separate reports confirming the decades of brush buildup and the need to reduce it in tens of millions of acres and cut #
firebreaks near dwellings. Gavin #
Newsom, to his credit, actually #
declared a state of #
emergency to bypass some of the environmental #
regulations preventing logging and brush clearance.
Finally, anecdotally, I got the trees for my cabin for free in exchange for clearing the brush left over from logging (canadian: "falling") the trees. The land owner told me he was going to sell the trees to a logger, but the logger refused to be responsible for clearing the leftover brush. He ended up hiring a guy (and I paid him) to remove the stumps.

Five reasons why deadlier and more destructive wildfires have become the new normal -- and they're all related to climate change.
www.cnn.com