JAZZMAN CHRONICLES:
RADICAL SOLUTIONS FOR RADICAL TIMES.
CALIFORNIA IS BURNING
By Jack Random
“We’re going to have to adapt. We’re going to have to change our technology. But in the meantime, we’re going to
spend a hell of a lot of money and there’s going to be a lot of unpleasant
events.”
Jerry Brown, Governor of California
I watch the news and muse about the issues of the day but
from where I sit in the center of the Great Central Valley, the agricultural
garden of the planet, there is only one issue of the day every day for as long
as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
California is on fire.
Most days the sky is more brown than blue. The only relief we get from sweltering triple-digit days is
caused by smoke blocking the sun. In
July the appropriately named Death Valley marked a record average temperature
of 108 degrees – meaning every 100-degree day was offset by a 116-degree
day. Yosemite National Park, John
Muir’s gem of natural wonder, is closed to the public. The people of Redding – 120 miles south
of the Oregon border – have lost much of their town. The people of Lakeport and Mendocino wake up each day
wondering if it’s their turn to evacuate.
California is burning and it’s nothing new. Last October the Tubbs fire decimated
the city of Santa Rosa, destroying over 5,000 structures including 2,800 homes
and claiming twenty-two human lives in the most destructive fire in California
history. The financial cost was
estimated at over a billion dollars.
By the time summer comes to a close, this year may be worse.
More than a dozen major fires are currently raging across
the state, turning our golden hue to bronze and threatening to transform a
bright future into a hazy toxic mess.
Sixteen fires had burned 320 acres, displacing more than 32,000
residents by the end of July. Some
thirteen thousand firefighters have been summoned to the battle.
Governor Jerry Brown warns that
this phenomenon of yearly inferno will continue to cost the state and its
residents billions of dollars in destruction and who knows how many lives – not
only from the fires but also from the poison it spews into the air. Ironically, the state that has done
more to combat pollution than any other may be fighting a losing battle.
While the folks in Washington
and on the major media news channels discuss the daily theatrics of America’s
former mayor, pouring through presidential tweets and trial transcripts, the
fires mark a trail of destruction like Sherman’s Civil War march through the South
and we all are whistling Dixie.
Welcome to the world of Global
Warming! Yeah, I said Global
Warming. We’ve all been instructed
to call it Climate Change so the idiots who choose to deny reality can’t get
away with refuting science every time a cold front comes through. The fact is: It’s fricking hot.
Not most summers but every summer it’s too hot to venture outside for
more than a few hours without risking your health and well-being. Unless you’re lucky enough to live by
the coast – increasingly reserved for the wealthy – you have to limit your time
in the sun and drink plenty of fluids.
Even the coastal residents have to worry about fires spreading and
destroying whole cities and towns.
Who will be next to face the earth’s revenge?
The Carr fire up north has taken
six lives and destroyed 1,465 structures.
That makes it the sixth most destructive wildfire in California history
and it’s still burning. In
Mendocino County – some of the most beautiful land in a state teeming with
beauty – two fires had wiped out over 90,000 acres and they’re still
burning. The Ferguson fire
scorching Yosemite, claiming over 60,000 acres is predicted to spread eastward
into the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
If you haven’t yet seen Yosemite, it’s a damned shame. The Ansel Adams photographs are
stunning beyond belief but the real thing is even more so.
The Ferguson fire has already
burned for twenty days but experts are worried it may get worse as a pressure
system lifts and ignites “a massive number of dead trees than have been killed
off by five years of drought and a bark beetle infestation.” [1]
The calendar has just turned to
August and a distinct possibility exists that it will only get worse as the
summer unwinds. It will certainly
get worse as the years unwind and politicians like our president continue to
pretend it has nothing whatsoever to do with the toxic stew we inject into our
atmosphere every day.
It is too late for the party of
denial to escape accountability.
We burn oil, gas and coal and pretend that natural gas is the solution
when in fact it only transfers the problem from the air we breathe to the water
we drink. Why do we still not have
solar panels on every home and building not only in the Golden State but in
every state where sun still shines?
(Wake up, Arizona! You are wasting the most valuable resource you have
and you’re worried about immigration?)
Why do we still not have an infrastructure that can accommodate a vast
array of renewable clean energy?
Why is it still cheaper to burn the most harmful fuels on the
planet? Why haven’t we developed
for mass deployment pollution-free vehicles?
It is undeniable. The world is getting hotter. Earlier this summer, record
temperatures were recorded across the globe from Los Angeles and Denver to New
Hampshire and Vermont, from Ottawa and Montreal to Glasgow and Belfast, from
Tbilisi and Yerevan in Eastern Europe to Quriyat in the Middle East. There is no hiding from this phenomenon
short of leaving the planet.
California’s fires join
tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes on the east coast and in the Gulf of
Mexico, cyclones and tsunamis in the Pacific and extreme weather events
throughout the nation and the world as powerful reminders that we have failed
to effectively address the most pressing problem of our times. This is a failing that will outlive us
all.
It is no longer worth arguing
about. It is happening to everyone
in every corner of the globe. The
earth doesn’t care if we believe or disbelieve. There will always be deniers. When the rising ocean turns Miami into Venice, Italy, and
Venice into a memory, there will be deniers. When hurricane season decimates Baltimore, New York, New
Orleans and Houston, there will be deniers. When powerful twisters mark a path of destruction through
St. Louis, Kansas City, Nashville and Atlanta, there will be deniers. When violent storms knock out our
vulnerable energy grid, there will be deniers. But there will also be rational human beings who wake up and
take action.
The most critical action we can
take is at the ballot box.
Until then, California will
burn.
Jazz.
“California fires rage and Gov.
Jerry Brown offers grim view of fiery future” by Jaclyn Cosgrove, John Myers,
Louis Sahagun and Sonali Kohli.
Los Angeles Times, August 1, 2018.
“Red-hot planet: All-time heat records have been set all
over the world during the past week” by Jason Samenow. Washington Post, July 5, 2018.
Jack Random is retired and
living in central California. He
is the author of the Jazzman Chronicles and other works, most recently Pawns to
Players: The Chess Series – a trilogy of political novels.
