| Morning, everyone. At the risk of wading into a political firestorm, let's talk about the West Coast wildfires for today's Sunday with Sisson. In 2018, my Malibu house was damaged in the Woolsey Fire. Came right up to the property line, and made it to the backyard the first night. My daughter was staying in the house and had no idea of the extent because the TV and internet were out. I had to call her from Miami to get the hell out after seeing live footage of 30 foot flames on the TV and my house in the background. We thought we were good, but the next night, flying embers from a half mile away caught our house on fire and did extensive damage. Scary stuff. There had been other fires in the past. Too many close calls. Among many other reasons, that's why I left for Miami. And now, once again, fire is burning up and down the west coast. It seems worse than ever. What's going on here? Is it climate change? Is it forest mismanagement? Is it both? That's where I lean. California is a Mediterranean climate. It's dry. It's got hot summers. Much of it is supposed to be desert. And before the advent of industrialization, up to 12 million acres of California burned every year. Historical accounts often mention the smoky skies. This year in California? 3 million. We used to have tons of fires. Naturally occurring ones that couldn't be stopped by nonexistent wildfire fighting teams with engines and airplanes and technology. They just burned the vulnerable foliage. For the past century, we've waged all out war on forest fires and had a zero tolerance policy. At the same time, we haven't done the controlled burns that fire management experts have recommended. We've allowed our forests to grow beyond their "natural" carrying capacity. And then you've got the incredibly warm, dry weather making it worse. Turning all that unmanaged forest into a tinderbox. It's no wonder everything appears to be on fire. Whatever it is, it comes down to living apart from and in opposition to nature and erecting a dam in an attempt to hold back the tides of nature from overtaking us. That builds up a lot of pressure, and the pressure is relieving itself. Just like it happens to a person who tries to deny their ancient human nature with processed food and sedentary living, it always comes back to bite you. The whole thing is tragic. No individual is to blame. No one organization or governing body is to blame. Hell, not even the "current day" is to blame. This is a problem that's been a long time coming. This is the worst kind of tragedy: a preventable one that you can't pin down on a single person or group of people. My heart goes out to everyone affected by this, and I hope we can use this to make better decisions about our forests and our environment in the future. I'd love to hear your takes on this, folks, in the comment section of Weekly Link Love. Have a great week. | 