“A Conspiracy Against the Public”: For reasons unknown to Moderators, Google has blocked this post [it only shows up via Technorati.com and examiner.com] – Aug 14, 2008
The Telegraph Fire rages on, but what would the next fire be called, the Internet Fire?
The figures are astronomical. The frequency, magnitude, acreage and cost of wildfires are growing each year. Like the Internet statistics, the costs are clocking 9-digit figures.
Agent Orange over Vietnam? No, an air tanker dropping its load of fire retardant on the slopes of Mt Bullion near Mariposa. Photo by Michael Maloney / The Chronicle. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!
Big Fires: Big Business!
In the 1990s the Forest Service spent just over $300 million a year fighting wildfires. In 2007 the cost jumped up to nearly $1.4 billion, a 4.7-fold rise (466 percent).
In California the rise was more “modest,” only 152 percent.
In the 1990s the wildfires consumed an average of about 3.6 million acres a year. Since 2000, the average was more than doubled to about 7.3 million acres. Last year, the figure nearly tripled to more than 9 million acres. The charred acreage this year is on track to break 2007 record.
Is this a thermonuclear explosion? A volcanic eruption? No, It’s a massive convection column of smoke rising above Los Padres National Forest during the $141million Zaca fire. Photo: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times. Image may be subject to copyright. See FEWW Fair Use Notice!
The Zaca Fire, which began burning northeast of Buellton in Santa Barbara County, California, started on July 4, 2007 and by August 31 it had burned about 240,210 acres (972.1 km²). The fire was declared controlled on October 29, 2007, at a cost of $141million.
Help Make Wildfires Fun (!)
Build your home at the edge of fire-prone wildlands, a million homeowners can’t be wrong! Right? More than 1 million homes (about 61% of all new housing) built in California, Oregon and Washington between 1990 to 2000 were erected at the edge of fire-prone wildlands, a University of Wisconsin study reported.
Tell You What…
Let’s uproot all the trees, shrubs and bushes, pave over the mountains and cement the wildlands … till there’s nothing more left for fire to consume!
Related New Links:
- As wildfires get wilder, the costs of fighting them are untamed
- Fire near Yosemite closes Highway 140
Related Links:
- Nature Must Be Punished, Look at the Mess in California!
- California Inferno Rages On
- The problem is they don’t understand the fires in California!
- Images of the Day: California Fires
- Lightning Safety Awareness Week: June 22-28
- A Few Extreme Events Away
- 2008: Year of the Fire
- Raging Wildfires: Mother Nature ensuring the cycle of life?
- Nature’s Defense Mechanisms
- UPDATE #2 – California Fires
- UPDATE: California Fires
- Early Halloween
- Images of the Day: California Fires
- Climate-enhanced catastrophes in the US
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Fire Earth 