C
Captain Compassion
Guest
October 29, 2007
The Environmentalist Fires
By John Berlau
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/10/the_environmentalist_fires.html
Last week, CNN delayed for a few hours the scheduled Tuesday night
broadcast debut of its much-hyped documentary series "Planet in Peril"
due to live coverage of the tragic wildfires that have displaced more
than 500,000 people in Southern California. But that didn't keep CNN
"golden boy" reporter Anderson Cooper from using the tragedy to tout
the program he starred in as much as he could.
Cooper constantly claimed during the week that the fires provided
further confirmation of the documentary's prediction of an
eco-catastrophe. Cooper said that higher temperature due to global
warming may have been a factor. It was a "timely documentary," Cooper
said last Tuesday on CNN's "Larry King Live", because "California
certainly seems to be in peril."
But ironically, much of the reason California is in peril is due not
to climate change, but to the very environmental policies championed
by Cooper's documentary and our new Nobel laureate, Al Gore. While, in
its statement praising Gore, the Nobel Committee said that global
warming may "threaten the living conditions of much of mankind," the
current wildfires show that the more immediate threat to man comes
from the champions of the gnatcatcher, kangaroo rat, and the Delhi
Sands Flower-Loving fly.
Environmental mandates have made fire safety for humans take a back
seat to the well-being of the aforementioned California creatures, as
well as that of every bug and rat lucky enough to be listed as an
"endangered species" under federal and state law. For over a decade,
environmentalists have hamstrung Californians in their efforts to
clear the dry brush that is providing the fuel for this massive fire.
If any of these endangered or even "threatened" species are found in
shrubs or bushes on public or private property, it becomes very
difficult to give this vegetation even the slightest haircut. This is
true even if city codes require firebreaks to be built.
An example of the legal strait jacket that homewoners faced in the
areas hit by the fires is the "brush management guide" on the City of
San Diego web site. The confusing instructions state that vegetation
within 100 feet of homes in canyon areas "must be thinned and pruned
regularly." But then, the same sentence goes on to state that this
must be achieved "without harming native plants, soil or habitats."
Then in fine print at the bottom of the page, the real kicker comes
in:
"Brush management is not allowed in coastal sage scrub during the
California gnatcatcher nesting season, from March 1st through August
15th. This small bird only lives in coastal sage scrub and is listed
as a threatened species by the federal government. Any harm to this
bird could result in fines and penalties."
Coastal sage scrub is a low plant ubiquitous near coastal California
that grows like a weed under almost any condition. And since
gnatcatcher nesting season lasts almost six months, there could be
much buildup of sage scrub that becomes hard for homeowners to
control. Especially since the maintenance rules severely restrict the
use of mechanical brush-clearing devices even when gnat nesting season
is over.
The tragedy is that this shows that not much has changed even after
previous warnings from experts that environmental rules were on a
collision course with fire safety in California and many other places,
because they prevented the removal of "excess fuel" for fires from
dense stands of trees and vegetation. Southern California homes were
lost in 1993 after the federal Fish and Wildlife Service told
homeowners that mechanical clearing of brush would likely violate the
Endangered Species Act. The reason: it could alter the habitat of a
newly-listed endangered species called the Stephens kangaroo rat.
Some exemptions were made, and clarifications were issued, but
landowners still face the lingering risk that the simple act of
building a firebreak can send them down the river if an endangered
species is anywhere near their property. California's Blue Ribbon
Fire Commission, which had been created after wildfires in 2003 by
then-Governor Gray Davis and whose members included Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, D-Calif., as well as state legislators of both parties,
concluded that "habitat preservation and environmental protection have
often conflicted with sound fire safe planning."
But did this bipartisan finding or any of the documented harms to fire
safety from environmental rules make it into CNN's exploration of
possible causes of the current fires? Not a gnatcatcher's chance.
Instead, climate "expert" Cooper told viewers Wednesday night that the
wildfires were "symptoms of a planet in peril. Fire, drought,
deforestation; it's all connected."
Yet the data show that temperature for areas hit by the fire was well
within average ranges, and came nowhere near the record highs. On
Monday the 23rd, for instance the high temperature in Escondido was 84
degrees, and the high in Santa Ana was 87 degrees. According to
temperature statistics from the National Weather Service, the mean
high in both cities for that date is 79 degrees. What's more, the
record high for that date is 102 degrees in Escondido (in 1929) and
103 degrees in Santa Ana (in 1965). So tell us again, Anderson, how
global warming is to blame, when the weather where the fires struck
was not nearly as hot as it was more than 40 years ago and almost 80
years ago!
What about those harsh Santa Ana winds? Well, they are pretty strong.
Here's one writer's description: "It was one of those hot dry Santa
Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and
make your nerves jump and your skin itch."
Woooo! What a great description of the winds last week. Except that
this passage wasn't written last week, last month, or last year. It
was written by detective fiction master Raymond Chandler to describe
the Santa Ana winds of about 70 years ago. It's in the opening
paragraph of his famous short story "Red Wind," first published in
1938. So rough winds are nothing new under the California sun!
What's really changing the "climate" in Southern California is that
there is more fuel for fires, since much less of the brush, as well as
disease-infested trees, can be cleared, thanks to environmental
mandates.
The problem is even worse on land owned by the federal and state
governments. To satisfy the feds, San Diego has placed more than
170,000 acres off limit to development for the exclusive purpose, in
the city's words, of "protect[ing] habitat for over 1,000 native and
non-native plant species and more than 380 species of fish,
amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals." Hugh Hewitt, the California
radio talk show host and author who is also a real estate attorney,
has noted in the Weekly Standard:
"The land that has passed into
The Environmentalist Fires
By John Berlau
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/10/the_environmentalist_fires.html
Last week, CNN delayed for a few hours the scheduled Tuesday night
broadcast debut of its much-hyped documentary series "Planet in Peril"
due to live coverage of the tragic wildfires that have displaced more
than 500,000 people in Southern California. But that didn't keep CNN
"golden boy" reporter Anderson Cooper from using the tragedy to tout
the program he starred in as much as he could.
Cooper constantly claimed during the week that the fires provided
further confirmation of the documentary's prediction of an
eco-catastrophe. Cooper said that higher temperature due to global
warming may have been a factor. It was a "timely documentary," Cooper
said last Tuesday on CNN's "Larry King Live", because "California
certainly seems to be in peril."
But ironically, much of the reason California is in peril is due not
to climate change, but to the very environmental policies championed
by Cooper's documentary and our new Nobel laureate, Al Gore. While, in
its statement praising Gore, the Nobel Committee said that global
warming may "threaten the living conditions of much of mankind," the
current wildfires show that the more immediate threat to man comes
from the champions of the gnatcatcher, kangaroo rat, and the Delhi
Sands Flower-Loving fly.
Environmental mandates have made fire safety for humans take a back
seat to the well-being of the aforementioned California creatures, as
well as that of every bug and rat lucky enough to be listed as an
"endangered species" under federal and state law. For over a decade,
environmentalists have hamstrung Californians in their efforts to
clear the dry brush that is providing the fuel for this massive fire.
If any of these endangered or even "threatened" species are found in
shrubs or bushes on public or private property, it becomes very
difficult to give this vegetation even the slightest haircut. This is
true even if city codes require firebreaks to be built.
An example of the legal strait jacket that homewoners faced in the
areas hit by the fires is the "brush management guide" on the City of
San Diego web site. The confusing instructions state that vegetation
within 100 feet of homes in canyon areas "must be thinned and pruned
regularly." But then, the same sentence goes on to state that this
must be achieved "without harming native plants, soil or habitats."
Then in fine print at the bottom of the page, the real kicker comes
in:
"Brush management is not allowed in coastal sage scrub during the
California gnatcatcher nesting season, from March 1st through August
15th. This small bird only lives in coastal sage scrub and is listed
as a threatened species by the federal government. Any harm to this
bird could result in fines and penalties."
Coastal sage scrub is a low plant ubiquitous near coastal California
that grows like a weed under almost any condition. And since
gnatcatcher nesting season lasts almost six months, there could be
much buildup of sage scrub that becomes hard for homeowners to
control. Especially since the maintenance rules severely restrict the
use of mechanical brush-clearing devices even when gnat nesting season
is over.
The tragedy is that this shows that not much has changed even after
previous warnings from experts that environmental rules were on a
collision course with fire safety in California and many other places,
because they prevented the removal of "excess fuel" for fires from
dense stands of trees and vegetation. Southern California homes were
lost in 1993 after the federal Fish and Wildlife Service told
homeowners that mechanical clearing of brush would likely violate the
Endangered Species Act. The reason: it could alter the habitat of a
newly-listed endangered species called the Stephens kangaroo rat.
Some exemptions were made, and clarifications were issued, but
landowners still face the lingering risk that the simple act of
building a firebreak can send them down the river if an endangered
species is anywhere near their property. California's Blue Ribbon
Fire Commission, which had been created after wildfires in 2003 by
then-Governor Gray Davis and whose members included Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, D-Calif., as well as state legislators of both parties,
concluded that "habitat preservation and environmental protection have
often conflicted with sound fire safe planning."
But did this bipartisan finding or any of the documented harms to fire
safety from environmental rules make it into CNN's exploration of
possible causes of the current fires? Not a gnatcatcher's chance.
Instead, climate "expert" Cooper told viewers Wednesday night that the
wildfires were "symptoms of a planet in peril. Fire, drought,
deforestation; it's all connected."
Yet the data show that temperature for areas hit by the fire was well
within average ranges, and came nowhere near the record highs. On
Monday the 23rd, for instance the high temperature in Escondido was 84
degrees, and the high in Santa Ana was 87 degrees. According to
temperature statistics from the National Weather Service, the mean
high in both cities for that date is 79 degrees. What's more, the
record high for that date is 102 degrees in Escondido (in 1929) and
103 degrees in Santa Ana (in 1965). So tell us again, Anderson, how
global warming is to blame, when the weather where the fires struck
was not nearly as hot as it was more than 40 years ago and almost 80
years ago!
What about those harsh Santa Ana winds? Well, they are pretty strong.
Here's one writer's description: "It was one of those hot dry Santa
Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and
make your nerves jump and your skin itch."
Woooo! What a great description of the winds last week. Except that
this passage wasn't written last week, last month, or last year. It
was written by detective fiction master Raymond Chandler to describe
the Santa Ana winds of about 70 years ago. It's in the opening
paragraph of his famous short story "Red Wind," first published in
1938. So rough winds are nothing new under the California sun!
What's really changing the "climate" in Southern California is that
there is more fuel for fires, since much less of the brush, as well as
disease-infested trees, can be cleared, thanks to environmental
mandates.
The problem is even worse on land owned by the federal and state
governments. To satisfy the feds, San Diego has placed more than
170,000 acres off limit to development for the exclusive purpose, in
the city's words, of "protect[ing] habitat for over 1,000 native and
non-native plant species and more than 380 species of fish,
amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals." Hugh Hewitt, the California
radio talk show host and author who is also a real estate attorney,
has noted in the Weekly Standard:
"The land that has passed into