Forest Fires

Superman v. The Gummint
Azadi Square is in Tehran, Iran

It's fire season again here on the west coast and once again I am wondering what the hell is going on. Bayou Renascence Man has a post up that pretty much condemns the government's policy regarding the nation's forests. The post links a story on The Daily Caller written by Michael Bastasch, who quotes Bob Zybach. Ask Google about Michael and it points to the DeSmog blog which says:

"Michael Bastasch is a reporter for the conservative news site The Daily Caller where he focuses on energy and environmental issues. Bastasch has published over 3,000 articles on The Daily Caller and has regularly provided a platform for climate change skeptics."

At this point I could write all these guys off as right-wing gun nuts, I mean "climate change skeptics"? In some circles that's as bad as being a racist. But the issues raised in the story are the same issues that get raised every year and nothing seems to have changed. On one hand I like to think that we have top men working on the problem, even as we speak. But it wouldn't make any difference whether we have top men working on it or bottom men, because in either case they are going to be so bound up by laws, regulations and lawsuits that nobody, not even Superman, can do anything.

The problem behind this problem, I suspect, is that forestry is small potatoes. It doesn't have the grip on the public's attention like Stormy Daniels (nsfw) does. Since it doesn't occupy the public's eye, it is not going to occupy congress, so any environmental legislation is going to get tacked onto some other bill, and what gets written into that bill is hacked out with some horse trading in the back rooms.

So getting some kind of real solution to the immediate problems is going to take a very patient, politically astute individual who is equipped with unparalleled determination.

Some people would argue that the EPA is overreaching or overzealous or over- something. I would say that we got the EPA because people had been very careless of the environment for such a long time that eventually the situation did make it into the public's attention and thence into Congress's. Things got so bad that Congress passed a law, and as we all know, the law is a blunt instrument. It's kind of like when you're kids playing in the sandbox and the situation gets a little out of control (Mom! Danny's throwing sand on me!) and the parents come out and boom! Down comes the club, and you retreat to your corner and hang your head, but as soon as Pop's head is turned you start up sniping at the enemy.

I would like to be able to recommend a story on this subject, but I don't know what the real situation is, and I don't have the time to find out. It all comes down to who you can trust, and it seems like most news sources are in somebody's pocket. I guess that's okay if they are presenting a true picture of the situation. The ones I don't like are those that are not, either through distortion or outright lying. But finding out what the true story is can be a never ending journey.

If I really wanted to be right-wing fundamentalist I would say that the wildfire situation is just the west coast getting what it deserves for being such a left-wing bastion of liberal idiocy. I wouldn't say that but sometimes I think it.