You know, if an Alpine mountain community lived in constant fear of avalanches, one could feel a certain sympathy if said avalanches caused severe damage to the place each year and some loss of life among its inhabitants.
I suspect, however, that one would feel somewhat less sympathetic if the community refused to deploy snowplows and rescue helicopters purely because of the emissions from those vehicles. Indeed, one might even get unworthy feelings of smug satisfaction and even Schadenfreude from the annual, tearful news reports of death and destruction.
How then, are we expected to feel when California gets plunged into darkness and suffers loss of property and life through the regular occurrence of wildfires?
Fire conditions statewide made California “a tinderbox,” said Jonathan Cox, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Of the state’s 58 counties, 43 were under red flag warnings for high fire danger Sunday.
And just so we know exactly why these conditions have reached the point to where they have: despite the fact that hot Santa Ana winds create an annual risk of deadly wildfires, California continues to ban the clear-cutting and controlled burning of deadwood and -brush in wilderness areas as well as in areas close to suburban development because of supposed-ecological concerns. That’s the “tinderbox” referred to above.
Moreover, it’s hard for the rest of us to feel pity for Californians when it’s clearly the fault of their own elected officials and legislature who continue to force their wrongheaded Gaia-worship on the Golden Shower State, with consequences that have become not only annual, but predictably horrible. (And which some, equally-predictably, somehow manage to escape.)
I should feel guilty about my Schadenfreude, but I really don’t — just as I don’t feel sorry for Californians who complain about high taxes, iniquitous government interference in their lives, high real-estate prices and the whole dreadful litany of self-inflicted ills, all without exception imposed on them by, once again, their stupid, venal and self-serving elected politicians.
Let ’em burn. Maybe at some point they may even be forced to try and get some change enacted through the ballot box, but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
Update: unusually, I seem to have understated California’s problems.
Nothing is going to change in Kalifornia. Kalifornia is controlled by the two cancerous tumors of Los Angeles and San Fransisco, and the people who infest those two tumors have a lethal combination of stupidity and arrogance.
The vast majority of people who’s homes burn in fires are the same people who voted for Governor Moonbeam, and Kamala Harris, and all the other Marxist proto-tyrants who want to destroy this country and turn it into Venezuela Norte. They have learned nothing, they will learn nothing. The only way this ends is when the cancer destroys its host and everything dies.
And before you laugh too hard, realize that little pockets of Marxist cancer are fleeing Kalifornia and moving to YOUR state, and mine, and infecting it with the same disease that ruined Kalifornia. It’s like cancer using the body’s lymphatic system to move to a new location. Sure, it started out in the prostate, but now it’s in the heart, the lungs, the bones.
Let’s not forget about everyone’s rising insurance rates to pay for this annual crap. Cancer indeed.
True. That is, IF you can even get insurance. From what I read, many insurer’s are bailing out. Good luck getting a loan to re-build.
“consequences … which some, equally-predictably, somehow manage to escape.”
Ah, but every day more deplorables bundle up their meager trash and head for outer darkness. Soon all the little boxes of ticky-tacky will be empty and Bambi and Thumper will be able to thrive in sustainable Eden. And as soon as the President’s election is validated, she will help to get those nasty transmission lines put underground, running alongside the high speed rails. And…
Problem is that these Marxist Bastards are going to end up in my state.
I prefer to call situations like this “schadenfreudelicious”.
Having lived in such an Alpine Village in Colorado I can testify that the solution is straight forward.
A. Don’t build things at the base of an avalanche cull . Avalanches tend to reoccur in the same places due to the topography.
B. Don’t allow the snow to build up in large drifts at the top of the Avalanche Cull. Explosive charges and Surplus Howitzers are excellent tools for this job. Since we know where to aim, they can be deployed even in the middle of a major snow storm. Oddly, when your team has Howitzers you don’t hear complaints from the enviro-wenies.
C. Snowplows and rescue Helicopters are only good for cleaning up after the fact