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There's a two-word phrase that environmentalists who set much of the federal and state policy regarding forests apparently don't know. The word is “unintended consequences,” and the consequences have been deadly, as much of Los Angeles is on fire this week.
These expert officials are supposed to be saving the planet and not starting widespread fires in populated areas, but incredibly, that appears to be exactly what caused the devastation that occurred in California this week. .
Government mismanagement, not climate change, is to blame for California's devastating wildfires
For example, as residents in the northeastern United States who inhaled wildfire smoke learned last year, experts have long found that federal and state-managed burn limits to mitigate fires have been limiting the number of blazes not only in California but also in Canada. We have been warned that it is creating
Former California Congressman Chuck DeBoer said: “The nature of the wildfire problem changes a little bit from north to south…In both cases, you have issues with air quality management districts that have both federal and state mandates to clean up. That's what makes it difficult. . prescribed burns Must be done with some frequency to reduce fuel load. ”
Tanner Charles Scharf shared a photo of the house he and a friend fled from during the California wildfires. (Tanner Charles Scharf)
In other words, the attitude of environmentalists that smoke is bad for the air and must be stopped at all costs has flashed by, making forests highly flammable and setting the stage for the burning down of thousands of homes and businesses. be.
Similarly, the failure of Los Angeles' water supply system, which led to a scene straight out of the movie “Chinatown” in which a fire hydrant runs dry, is a result of green utopianism.
Ninety-five percent of California's water flows into the Pacific Ocean, but last time we checked, we weren't running out of water itself. So you may be wondering why this precious resource is literally being dumped into the ocean. To protect fish such as the delta smelt, whose populations have been on the brink of extinction for years.
Coastal land still destroyed by the Palisades fire. Aerial photo of Malibu, California, Thursday, January 9, 2025 (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
No, I'm serious. Environmental regulations require states to divert water to the ocean after heavy snowfalls, even if the aqueducts and eventually fire trucks dry up like leaves. This is a policy that confounds reasonable people, but it makes sense to environmentalists.
Just as we saw with hysterical coronavirus activists, these fanatical environmental regulators have no ability to grapple with competing legitimate interests. Once we decide to clean the air, cleaning the air is counterproductive, even if it means burning down forests.
It doesn't matter if people become homeless and neighborhoods become cinders. Because environmentalists have their hearts set in the right direction, and they're seriously focused on big, important planetary threats, not one or two houses on fire.
Just to be clear, these are the same people who are trying to blame the fires, winds, and everything else on climate change. I'm surprised they didn't use climate change alarmism to explain why Mayor Karen Bass was in Ghana while Ghana City was burning and refused to answer questions about it.
The tragedy that unfolded in California this week has its roots in decades of systematic takeover of universities and regulatory agencies by people concerned about climate change. The most absurd and sensational claims about climate change are met with gasps and promises of more funding in the halls of our power.
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That has to change. It would be too kind to call environmental regulators myopic. At the very least, nearsightedness results in a narrower field of vision. These people just seem to be blind and just keep making predictions year after year and decades after their predictions come true.
It's been seven years since Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asserted that the planet has only 12 years to deal with the climate problem. what? I wonder if there are already 5 people?
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President-elect Donald Trump needs to ensure that everyone involved in federal climate and his administration's environmental policy understands the unintended consequences and competing legitimate interests.
California made a huge sacrifice on the altar of climate change concerns this week. Lives and homes were destroyed in obedience to the omnipotence of environmental protection. It backfired badly. If we don't change course, this won't be the last time something like this happens.
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