Guest Post by John Stossel
“Mother Earth is angry!” says Nancy Pelosi in my newest video.
“The debate is over around climate change!” says California Governor Gavin Newsom, smirking, strangely.
They’re eager to blame climate change for the wildfires in their state. I’m surprised they didn’t say it causes COVID-19, too.
Newsom, ridiculously, says wildfires are another reason to get more electric cars on the road. I wonder if he even knows that electricity for such cars comes from natural gas.
“This catastrophizing around climate change is just a huge distraction,” says environmentalist Michael Shellenberger, author of the new bestseller, “Apocalypse Never.”
Shellenberger says: “Climate change is real, but it’s not the end of the world. It’s not our most serious environmental problem.”
California warmed 3 degrees over the past 50 years, but that’s not the main cause of California’s fires, no matter how often politicians and the media say it is.
Why do they keep saying it?
“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail,” says Shellenberger. “Every weather event you blame on climate change.”
What actually is to blame, as usual, is stupid government policies.
Forests are supposed to burn. If there aren’t small fires, debris from dead trees and plants accumulate. That provides fuel for big, deadlier fires, that are more likely to burn out of control.
But for years, governments and environmentalists put out every small fire they could, while also fighting logging.
Megafires could have been avoided if forests had just been better managed.
An example is Shaver Lake forest, managed by Southern California Edison. The company thinned that forest, creating fire breaks with selective logging. When the wildfires reached Shaver Lake, they diminished into low intensity “surface fire.” That protected the bigger, older trees.
Forests in America’s west were supposed to burn more often, says Shellenberger. “When Europeans came, they reported California being very smoky and on fire during the summers. And Native Americans burned huge amounts of land.”
“So, for the past years, it’s been unnaturally un-smoky?” I ask.
“It’s what a lot of forest ecosystems require,” answers Shellenberger. “We haven’t had enough fires for maybe 100 years.”
But it’s hard to convince governments to allow small fires when politicians demand that every fire be put out, and the media call every fire a disaster.
Recently, wildfire hit the ancient redwoods in Big Basin State Park. Politicians and East Coast environmental reporters worried about the redwoods disappearing.
But of course, they didn’t.
“Redwood trees and other old growth, the bark is very thick, it’s fire-resistant,” says Shellenberger.
The politicians didn’t know that. “They’re still standing!” giggled an astonished Newsom after the fire passed.
But “it was exactly what you would expect,” says Shellenberger. “Journalists go, ‘Wow. What a surprise! The ancient redwoods didn’t burn down!’ Nobody’s more alienated from the natural environment, and nobody’s more apocalyptic than environmental journalists.”
Well, maybe politicians.
For years, they and environmentalists increased the risk of big fires by opposing the thinning of forests.
The town of Berry Creek, California, tried to get permits to legally clear their forest. For two years, regulators delayed approval. This year, fire destroyed the town.
Forest Service ecologist Hugh Safford wishes they would “get away from the tree-hugging mentality. It’s the classic ‘not seeing the forest for the trees.'”
This year’s wildfires finally persuaded politicians to allow more people to cut trees down.
“There’s actually widespread agreement on this, says Shellenberger. “The governor of California and President Trump recently signed an agreement to clear much more area. Even the Sierra Club, which opposed the thinning of forests, has now changed its tune.”
It’s about time.
Politicians and environmentalists, eager to raise money, cite climate change and blame fossil fuels for problem after problem.
While climate change is a problem, Shellenberger points out, “the number of deaths from natural disasters declined 90% over the last hundred years. A small change in temperature is not the difference between normalcy and catastrophe.”
John Stossel is author of “Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.” For other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators.com.
It is my sincere desire to provide readers of this site with the best unbiased information available, and a forum where it can be discussed openly, as our Founders intended. But it is not easy nor inexpensive to do so, especially when those who wish to prevent us from making the truth known, attack us without mercy on all fronts on a daily basis. So each time you visit the site, I would ask that you consider the value that you receive and have received from The Burning Platform and the community of which you are a vital part. I can't do it all alone, and I need your help and support to keep it alive. Please consider contributing an amount commensurate to the value that you receive from this site and community, or even by becoming a sustaining supporter through periodic contributions. [Burning Platform LLC - PO Box 1520 Kulpsville, PA 19443] or Paypal
-----------------------------------------------------
To donate via Stripe, click here.
-----------------------------------------------------
Use promo code ILMF2, and save up to 66% on all MyPillow purchases. (The Burning Platform benefits when you use this promo code.)
The National Weather Service has been collecting hard data since only 1846. Based mainly on these 174 years, climatologists at the NWS and other organizations have developed all their trends and cycles.
There is no doubt the climate has changed in this time, it’s unavoidable with more people, factories, cities, etc. But even with all that, the Earth barely notices us, as it’s on a natural 88-year cycle (which Richard Feynman et al. go into here: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2002JA009390 ) which coincides with increased sunspot activity. This is notable because Mercury revolves around the Sun once in 88 days. 88 is an important number.
Orbital permutations also apply when speaking of climate change. As is presented here: https://theconversation.com/ice-ages-have-been-linked-to-the-earths-wobbly-orbit-but-when-is-the-next-one-70069 , which is a rather simplistic but informative article.
But see, this is all science, which is provable but boring. Most would say it’s TL:DR stuff, so they let others sort it out for them. And if these climate change crooks stuck to the science they wouldn’t make money since there’s no urgency.
Its the sun stupid
That’s what all the science shows!
There is certainly nothing wrong with making sure that pollution is contained. Pollution is a property crime – a trespass. But governments around the world are some of the greatest polluters anywhere. Just look at the burn pits from Afghanistan whose smoke continues to cause medical issues in veterans. Just look at how much hazardous waste remediation needs to happen when a military base is closed. And just look at the fact that the DOD is among the top ten consumers of fossil fuels on the planet (beating out most countries). Whatever the truth, there is no denying that not one more cent, not one more freedom, not one more right should ever be given up or handed to the greatest contributors to EVERY problem on the planet – the government.
Read an article in Nat Geo some 10+ years ago that was about a study of tree rings looking at weather patterns in the Southwest. The gist of the article indicated that the past 100 years had been unusually wet and things were trending dryer. Said they were going to have more water problems in CA.
This was about the time that Lake Mead was done to about 20%.
Wow, you really can put lipstick on a pig…losi.
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/517522-bloomberg-pays-fines-for-32000-felons-in-florida-so-they-can-vote
As always, John is ignorant on many counts.
“Newsom, ridiculously, says wildfires are another reason to get more electric cars on the road. I wonder if he even knows that electricity for such cars comes from natural gas.” – A better point to be made would be that electric transmission lines falling were responsible for the massive fires last year that took dozens of lives. As a result, and because of their liability, PG&E now runs rolling blackouts throughout CA that last for hours and hours whenever an area has high winds. More electric cars means more cars that need more electricity that they won’t be delivering, regardless of how it is generated. Additionally, during the current firestorm in the LA Basin, PG&E had to get special permission to run three large electricity generation plants at full capacity so that people did not die from having no A/C or any electricity in the 100F heat because of the required cutbacks in electrical output.
As for them not knowing about the redwoods, I have been to the redwood forest and the Sequoia forest, and wherever there is a tree with a huge burn scar, the signage present makes it VERY CLEAR that the ONLY WAY a redwood or sequoia seed can germinate is IF IT IS BURNED BY FIRE. So not only did they survive, new ones are likely on the way.
And as for environmentalists being the problem, while I have no doubt that they are, so are the citizens who don’t want to deal with the smoke from controlled fires, and who petition their city councils, state representatives, etc. Additionally, and very importantly, the EPA FINES cities and counties when they conduct controlled burns if there is too much pollution created. But guess what? If a fire burns a million acres because of unchecked undergrowth, etc. and creates 1000x as much pollution, NOBODY GETS FINED. I believe that Joseph Heller wrote a great book about this kind of typical government bullshit and insanity.
They’re mentally ill.
As if Newsom wasn’t already causing enough problems in that state, now he is banning the sale of any gas-powered new car by 2035:
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/california-governor-gavin-newsom-bans-174438751.html
What is scary is what their purchasing power as a state will mean for the rest of us. God this country needs to dissolve and soon!!!!