By Jennifer Lu
...And while the legacy of America's old fire suppression strategy (click here) resulted in the buildup of excess flammable brush, there are two other key reasons why California is the perfect tinderbox. One is that the state has a growing number of people living in or near fire-prone areas.
The second is that California has a naturally dry climate, made worse by climate change and Trump's disregard for climate policies.
Already, Trump has dismantled several key environmental protections that limit greenhouse gases from oil and gas operations, power plants, and cars. The Environmental Protection Agency under Trump also proposed to take away California's right to regulate tailpipe carbon emissions standards in cars that are more protective than federal standards. These moves would worsen climate change and contribute to the state’s propensity to go up in flames....
...The U.S. Forest Service estimated in 2015 that climate change has led to fire seasons that are on average 78 days longer than they were almost 40 years ago.
If Northern California had received anywhere near the typical amount of autumn precipitation this year (around 4-5 in. of rain near #CampFire point of origin), explosive fire behavior & stunning tragedy in #Paradise would almost certainly not have occurred. (1/n) #CAfire #CAwx
12:54 pm Nov 10, 2018
Meanwhile, Trump's threat to suspend funding would cripple firefighting efforts when they’re most needed. The U.S. Forest Service spent more than $2 billion last year to put out fires, a sharp increase that "means we have to keep borrowing from funds that are intended for forest management," said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. “We’ve got great people at the Forest Service and great procedures and processes in place…but if we don’t have a dependable funding source in place, then we’ll never get ahead of the curve on fighting fires.”
