It's almost no use writing out the numbers of actual fires, sizes, %-contained, # evacuated (already half a million!)...the Santa Ana winds are cranking like the often do, creating fires as they often do, under their own drought-like conditions. It's happened for millenia. Here is a quote from an AP wire story early this morning:
"...Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the flames were threatening 68,000 more homes.
"We have had an unfortunate situation that we've had three things come together: very dry areas, very hot weather and then a lot of wind," Schwarzenegger said. "And so this makes the perfect storm for a fire."..."
You left out the fourth thing that makes it all the worse, Governator: Way too many people who have been allowed to build and develop in areas that are extremely fire prone, naturally. This type of disaster will happen again and again, and while the personal tragedies are monumental, please don't cry me a river. Money-hungry and land-grubbing interests have pushed developments far into natural areas that arguably shouldn't be densely populated, if at all. In a related way, rampant development there goes into canyon country, then someone gets mauled by a mountain lion when they go for a run or a hike...and all we hear about is the blood-thirsty lion being hunted down and what a tragedy it is for the family. We are very good at getting it all "bass ackwards"...
Bringing it home, remember earlier this year the major brouhaha with Kannapolis and Concord petitioning the state so they could draw millions of gallons of water daily from the Catawba River for their water supply, even though they are not part of that drainage basin? Can you even IMAGINE the scope of our current disaster if that already were in operation? Trying to talk about population and growth limitations brings out the worst in selfish people and corporations that are primarily profit-driven (as well as tax-driven). A change of attitude is needed on a large scale, friends...otherwise we are doomed to fulfill the very definition of......
INSANITY: when you do the same thing
repeatedly and still expect a different result
With that said, I'll get down off my soapbox and share with you incredible images I found from various websites. They enlarge nicely when you click on them. I think they're pretty self-explanatory...
Bringing it home, remember earlier this year the major brouhaha with Kannapolis and Concord petitioning the state so they could draw millions of gallons of water daily from the Catawba River for their water supply, even though they are not part of that drainage basin? Can you even IMAGINE the scope of our current disaster if that already were in operation? Trying to talk about population and growth limitations brings out the worst in selfish people and corporations that are primarily profit-driven (as well as tax-driven). A change of attitude is needed on a large scale, friends...otherwise we are doomed to fulfill the very definition of......
INSANITY: when you do the same thing
repeatedly and still expect a different result
With that said, I'll get down off my soapbox and share with you incredible images I found from various websites. They enlarge nicely when you click on them. I think they're pretty self-explanatory...
1 comment:
Amen! on your "don't cry me a river" comments, Bob!
My brother in Billings MT relates the same story every summer fire-season there (and Montana summers are naturally dry, and have been for millions of years!).
MT real estate moguls and developers continue to gobble-up acres and acres of public land in the surrounding bluffs and foothills, sell it for outrageous prices, and then build collosal, "monster-homes" --- and people are dumb enough to buy/build in these developments where there is often only 1 road (typically an old Forest Service road) up into them (and back out).
My brother tells me that there are brush and forest fires of some magnitude almost every summer in the Billings area, and while loss of life is tragic, I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for the mentality that creates and buys into such housing developments.
Enough of MY soapbox as well !!
Suzy :)
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