Opinion: Fires are not the ‘new normal.’ Things will get much worse
Good morning. I’m Paul Thornton, and it is Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017. We’ve been refusing to jinx the
There’s a common saying among environmentalists that climate change isn’t a far-off threat for California — that the droughts, severe fire seasons and punishing rainstorms of late indicate a new normal for a state already used to gentler versions of all three.
But these fires and the growing intensity of California’s weather cycles are only a taste of what we’re in for if human beings continue to rely on fossil fuels as their primary energy source. In a Times op-ed article, contributing writer to Opinion Jacques Leslie lays out from his home 45 miles south of Santa Rosa the grim realities we all face as Californians:
The current fires weren’t a surprise. Two days before they started, a swath of North Bay counties began receiving “severe weather” alerts warning that the combination of unseasonably high temperatures, low humidity, “critically dry fuels,” and the “strongest offshore wind event so far this fall” had produced a high risk of a rapidly moving fire. Sure enough, one of the characteristics of these fires has been the “unprecedented” speed of their spread. “You’re talking 20,000 acres in essentially 12 hours, which is a phenomenal rate of growth,” said Jonathan Cox, a Cal Fire battalion chief in Santa Rosa.
All those factors — high temperatures, low humidity, strong winds — are exacerbated by climate change, and as climate change intensifies, they will, too. Though Mill Valley has not experienced a calamitous fire since the 1920s, the odds of its occurrence will steadily rise. And what all these fires have shown us is that in the face of a firestorm, we’re virtually defenseless.
Mill Valley has already been introduced to climate change in another way: sea level rise. Our home, at an altitude of 26 feet, isn’t likely to be inundated any time soon, but a section of one of the two roads into the town already is on occasion. When we moved here, that road, which curves around a San Francisco Bay inlet, never flooded; now it goes as much as a foot underwater several times a year, depending on tides and heaviness of rainfall. Sometimes cars slosh through the water, sending splashes high on both sides; other times the road is entirely blocked. ...
We’ve considered moving, but where to? Climate change is a global phenomenon, already swallowing islands, glaciers and icecaps and generating bigger hurricanes, more heat waves, and floods of unprecedented intensity. Our only choice, wherever we are, is to fight tenaciously for sane climate change policies, or else we will get burnt.
These fires are not just bad luck. With historically devastating natural disasters striking other parts of the country immediately prior to the Northern California fires, you see a pattern emerge, says The Times Editorial Board. It concludes: “California is fortunate to have a governor who understands the perils of ignoring climate change and is aggressively pushing policies to mitigate its future harm. Unfortunately, that puts him at odds with a head-in-the-sand president who blithely disregards the obvious connection between the warming climate and the multiple federal disaster areas he’s been forced to declare in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and, now, California.” L.A. Times
With the fires so close to home, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat’s editorial board has been focused on more immediate concerns than climate change. Over the last several days, it has wondered why local residents in harm’s way did not receive Amber Alert-style warnings, suggested ways for concerned nonresidents to lend a hand, praised the community’s spirit in the face of disaster and lamented the array of irreplaceable local businesses and landmarks lost to the fire. Santa Rosa Press Democrat Opinion
What about the other accused predators who are academy members? The Times Editorial Board notes that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will have to expel more people than just Harvey Weinstein if it decides to act on sexual assault allegations against him. In other editorials on the Weinstein scandal, the board faults the producer’s former company for firing him earlier this week when it could have done so years ago, bristles at his pledge to endow a USC scholarship for female film directors and warns that versions of Hollywood’s notorious “casting couch” culture extend deep into other industries.
Why was Harvey Weinstein fired? Exposure mattered more than the allegations.
To undermine
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