Blame it on global warming

Have you noticed how easy it is for politicians (many Democrats) to blame most anything on "global warming"?!

Global warming to blame for fires, says Harry Reid

Excerpt:

"One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming," the Nevada Democrat told reporters, emphasizing the need to pass the Democrats' comprehensive energy package.

Pressed by astonished reporters on whether he really believed global warming caused the fires, he appeared to back away from his comments, saying there are many factors that contributed to the disaster.

Perhaps in the case of the California wildfires, there is a failure of policy. Read more below:

Rethinking Fire Policy in the Tinderbox Zone

National
Rethinking Fire Policy in the Tinderbox Zone
By KIRK JOHNSON and JESSE McKINLEY
Published: October 28, 2007
Many California residents are ruggedly obstinate about the choice they have made to live with the constant threat of fire.

Excerpt:

Fire-management experts like Professor Minnich, who has compared fire histories in San Diego County and Baja California in Mexico, say the message is clear: Mexico has smaller fires that burn out naturally, regularly clearing out combustible underbrush and causing relatively little destruction because the cycle is still natural. California has giant ones because its longtime policies of fire suppression — in which the government has kept fires from their normal cycle — has created huge pockets of fuel that erupt into conflagrations that must be fought.

“We’re on all year round,” said Brett Chapman, a firefighter with the United States Forest Service who worked 15-hour shifts this week in the Lake Arrowhead area east of Los Angeles.

The main problem is that many in California are ruggedly obstinate about the choice they have made to live with the constant threat of fire. Even state officials who are interested in change concede it could take a decade — and more catastrophic wildfires — before it happens.

“If you’re going to live in paradise,” said Randall Holloman, a bar and restaurant owner in Cedar Glen, which is in an area that has burned twice in four years, “you’re going to have to deal.”

In San Diego County, which has borne the brunt of the recent fires, three out of four homes built since 1990 are in the dangerous zone where open spaces and housing meet. These are the most vulnerable and exposed places in fire season because wildfires by and large start in national forests, recreation areas and other publicly owned lands. About half of the land in San Diego County is publicly owned, much of it in the Cleveland National Forest.

Had this week’s fires burned in the same locations in 1980, about 61,000 homes would have been within a mile of a fire. By 2000, the number would have grown to 106,000 homes, and this year it was 125,000, according to an analysis by the University of Wisconsin.

Comments: Hurricanes are going to happen and actually are beneficial to the environment, replenishing water supplies. The problem is that the US has a policy (in the case of New Orleans) of building below sea level. And in the coastal areas, federal flood policy supports rebuilding on beach front properties. In the case of California, its a failure of fire policy! Politicians capitalize on these events of nature to leverage their own political agenda. In the case of Harry Reid, to "pass the Democrats' comprehensive energy package".