Paul's Comments

One of the things I get in e-mail is the Huffington Post. Kind of a bit liberal but interesting. One of the articles - actually two of them - dealt with the fires in Southern California. One of the articles criticized how the reporters from the major news services basically were tourists who knew nothing about the conditions there or what is happening. The other was complaining over how the Bush Jr. Administration excised comments about how this sort of situation is a result of climate change due to Global Warming, when an official went before congress to explain about the wildfires.

I'd like to quote something (a bit of a sardonic comment) from my book "In the Matter of: The Gatekeeper: The Gate Contracts" that I wrote some twelve years ago (where has the time gone?) which was someone listening to the news reports on the radio:

"San Francisco: National Guard and Forest Service personnel as well as hundreds of firefighters are battling a 15,000 acre fire in the San Joachin Valley which has been exacerbated by drought conditions. Hundreds of residents have been evacuated, and reports are that 12 people so far have died due to smoke inhalation and burn injuries.

"Los Angeles: Red Cross officials are attempting to assist victims who have been left homeless as a result of days of rain, devastating floods and mudslides, this coming only weeks after a major earthquake struck Southern California. Property damage alone is expected to top $1 billion. Police report 14 people are either dead or unaccounted for."

There have been fires every year in California for as long as I can remember. And as the comment indicates, mudslides. Seems like they sometimes pingpong; Southern California gets fires in one season, Northern California gets mudslides, then the other way around. Or maybe Southern California gets both and occasionally Northern California gets fires, I'm not sure. I am sure that they get fires there all the time, it's like a regular yearly event, sort of like the swallows returning to Capistrano or something.

I remember an incident reported in the news years ago where there was a house in Southern California, in which the entire coastal area went up in flames, dozens (or perhaps even hundreds) of houses burned or completely destroyed by flames, and one house, all by itself, completely untouched by the raging inferno which had destroyed the neighborhood. Divine Intervention? A deeply religious homeowner spared by the Finger of God against his pagan neighbors? Well, sort of. Seems that everyone around him liked leaving the brush near their property, kind of an "au naturel" look in keeping with their surroundings, and probably in spite of recommendations from the officials of Los Angeles County telling them to clear the (dead) brush from around their properties. He did; they didn't. The dead brush served as tinder, and up their houses went in flames like, well, houses in a firestorm surrounded by dry wood. His didn't have this ready-made fuel near his house, as a result, his house didn't burn.

These fires, I remember going back to when I lived in Long Beach, over 20 years ago, and I remember them happening on a regular basis going back to when I was in either elementary or Junior High, which would go back, oh, about 30 or 35 years. I remember a time when I was in school - I still can't remember if it was elementary or Junior High - and the entire sky was a shade of orange because of the smoke from fires more than 30 miles away. While we were let out for recess - that's where I remember seeing the orange sky over the top of the school building - I think they cancelled outdoor Physical Education classes because you couldn't do PE while the air was so badly contaminated with smoke.

So maybe the global warming problem goes back that far, or someone's not noticed that there have been, it seems, yearly fires going back decades. I'm not necessarily saying that there isn't a climate problem - nor am I necessarily agreeing that there is - I'm just saying that there have been yearly fires in California going back decades.

"Nothing to see here, move along."