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World on Fire -- Literally
Another fall, another series of devastating wildfires.
They're not quite as close to home as last year's North Bay fires, literally or figuratively, but it all feels very familiar, from the stories of destruction -- one fire, the Camp fire about 150 miles north, has burned down an entire town -- to the smoke filling our air. Even though the fire is notably further away, I feel like the air quality is notably worse this time, and it's supposed to stay bad at least through the weekend.
Fire has always a natural part of life in California, to the point that August through October is known as "fire season", but the years of drought interspersed with occasional very wet winters has not only made the fires burn hotter, they've started happening year round. And the more the climate changes, the worse it's going to get.
I try not to be defeatist about these things -- although it's probably too late to turn around global warming entirely, it's not too late to mitigate the worst of the damage -- but sometimes it's really hard to feel otherwise.
They're not quite as close to home as last year's North Bay fires, literally or figuratively, but it all feels very familiar, from the stories of destruction -- one fire, the Camp fire about 150 miles north, has burned down an entire town -- to the smoke filling our air. Even though the fire is notably further away, I feel like the air quality is notably worse this time, and it's supposed to stay bad at least through the weekend.
Fire has always a natural part of life in California, to the point that August through October is known as "fire season", but the years of drought interspersed with occasional very wet winters has not only made the fires burn hotter, they've started happening year round. And the more the climate changes, the worse it's going to get.
I try not to be defeatist about these things -- although it's probably too late to turn around global warming entirely, it's not too late to mitigate the worst of the damage -- but sometimes it's really hard to feel otherwise.