Hotel guest, Rudy Habibe, runs for his life from the burning Hilton Wine Country Inn in Santa Rosa, monday 9 october 2017
This posting will be Part 51 of the "Global War'n'ing" series of this blog/ journal. I been following this all week (LA Times), so I wanted to record it in this journal ... and fires are still blazing out of control as I post this. The mainstream media been all over this like a cheap suit on sunday, and been doing a great job on covering so much of it. But again, there has been also a lack of discussion in media, as far as what is causing the intensity of these fires, just like when they covered Hurricane Harvey. For example, last night in prime time tele news with ABC Network, they were just talking about some downed power lines and transformers as being investigated as what caused these fires. These fires are even leveling cities like Santa Rosa, a major town in the north SF Bay Area, as well as the wineries ... the business/ real estate end is even enormous ... and not only up in the Bay Area, even threatening the LA/ SoCal area, and multiple counties between, with some of the highest real estate on the market in this country, you even have mansions of the wealthier classes being destroyed too. This is the reason why I wanted to avoid the mainstream talk, and go to a scientist to give some insight on the real issue ... so Thanx to Democracy Now and bioclimatologist Park Williams for covering this the way it should be. Sadly, between much of the mainstream media, political correctness, big oil/ gas/ coal influence, and politics ... we have to actually go to scientists to get any common sense, a straight assessment, and accuracy as to what our problem is. When these issues and discussions do come up in any of the mainstream, it's alwayz "inconclusive" talk ... saying that we dont have enough evidence and research yet to come to the conclusion that human activity is intensifying the extreme weather. Scientists have been pointing this out now for close to a half century, there has been more debates and research than you can shake a stick at, there is OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE if you just read the research/ findings, as well.
Since everyone is so concerned also about the buck ($$) or the economy, I myself being a sort of pro- business environmentalist, this is also proof as to what it's going to cost us for our prepaid ignorance. Right now (last I read recently), we are at a point where even a majority of people are seriously questioning our part in contributing to global warming/ climate change, more than half the folks in this country (about 2/3rd on average), whichever political side they belong to, are using common sense and saying to themselves ... "something is really wrong in what we are doing", they can see what the problem is ... because of how clear it's becoming. Sure, forest fires have been a way of life in much of the west, especially in California, but because of the weather changes and more extreme conditions, the intensity of these fires is escalating. You also have the Central Valley drought issues (ScienceDaily), a mega strain on agriculture, not just on California's economy, produce and prices, but the entire country. California alone dont even have nearly the resources they need to fight these fires, and you know that these smaller states sure as Hell dont, they are using everything they have, and for years have been using low offender prisoners even, both men and women to fight fires. And this is more than California, it is everywhere west from Colorado to Washington to Arizona, all neighbouring states are feeling this intensity. Want to talk about dollars and the economy? ... how do you think this is going to effect banking/ finance?, how about the insurance industry?, for examples ... who finances and insures the properties and businesses, eh? What will this do to our taxes?, especially now, while they are trying to gut them more to appease big money interests? As it is, all these big banks and insurers alone are going to have to depend on tax subsidies in all these disasters along with skyrocketed premiums and financial institution costs, just to stay afloat. Our tax dollars are already subsidizing these too big to fail entities, as well as things like big oil down to the CEO pay ... and you know damn well that they are going to be whining for financial/ tax help to Congress over all these new costs.
This is also why I'm so concerned in this series on infrastructure funding, and NOT just for inner city sugarcoating gentrification and over building/ development of private/ public money for million dollar condos and shopping centers (as you see now, coast to coast) ... will you be able to sustain property values, business growth, occupancy, sales, etc, for the long term on this type of investing/ subsidizing?, etc. (this type of subsidizing/ investing only benefits a very small sector). Because when the economy tanks, and all the investment roaches come out of the woodwork to do stock buy backs, short sells or whatever, while many of these development investments dont pay off as they were rushed into thinking they would on the short term hustle ... we will have to subsidize them even more as well, which means cuts to public services, and more subsidizing/ welfare for the investors that took a hit, eh? ... I mean, that's how our politics/ legislation on these things worx. We are not doing very well as far as combating extreme weather at this point (and this is global as well), public and private infrastructure spending and redevelopment planning are going to be key in not only safety, but especially the economy ... bottom line, the way we are doing things and with this climate change, we can get totally wiped out financially as time goes on. You need more investment and planning development around areas that will be hit most from flooding or fire, irrigation and desalination of water expansion, better draining, more expansion and use in renewable energies, and much other infrastructure needs. My stepgrandson, Jeremy, will get his bachelor's degree in "civil engineering" this coming May, global warming played a large role in him wanting to get into that field, he talked to me about it since in high school ... he is a young progressive in thought too. And Thanx to so many of our graduates today, that are thinking about change and fixing problems. Right now, oil investments are getting big incentives and tax breaks to get new investors into oil as example (of course, you wont hear much about that in mainstream media), we need more equal incentives to expand way more into other forms of energy too.
We are wasting and splurging way too much not just on corporate welfare, but also on funding unnecessary defense spending as it is, and every year that the defense spending budget grows, they have to spend that amount (like in any business/ company), to keep at least the same budget approval for the next year. Some folks say the damage is done and we just have to live with it, etc (as far as climate change) ... there is alwayz room for improvement and to clean house. We are so worried about being the global idol and role model ... while many are not loving us around the globe as much as we may fantasize. Last I heard, we are currently under this new administration, talking about even rolling back regulations for these oil/ energy producers that are already fucking up big time and cant even control themselves, causing economic damage as well as environmental. With a President engaging in these bitch fights with places like North Korea, while planning on shelling out billions more on that crap. You want to really make this country a leader, innovator, role model, etc? ... do something different that changes business as usual, and contributes to real progress that shines, and you will really be recognized and make your mark in the world and set a new trend and goals. Enough out of my mouth on this ... listen to Park Williams below, and read the PDF as well for some further insight. After that at the bottom I included some photos in a link of the aftermath of some of these fires, and some video as well.
Word Out ....
Alton Park Williams | Bioclimatologist- Assistant Research Professor @ Columbia University
***** DEMOCRACY NOW: As Deadly Wildfires Rage in California, a Look at How Global Warming Fuels Decades of Forest Fires ... (video/ transcript)
***** PNAS | John T. Abatzoglou & A. Park Williams: Impact of anthropogenic change on wildfire across western US forests ... (PDF & SI)
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***** PD/ RCJ: "GLOBAL WAR'N'ING" ... PART'S 50 THRU 1
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***** BUZZFEED NEWS: 16 Devastating Pictures From The Aftermath Of California's Wildfires ... (photos)
Napa Fire Santa Rosa California WILDFIRE Sonoma Yuba Tubbs Atlas County -Fires Burn Canyon 10/ 9/ 2017 ... Thanx to Adam Danischewski
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***** RANCH CHIMP JOURNAL "WELCOME" POST
***** RCJ MUSIC/ ART'S HONOUR ROLL SOCIETY (my hand- selected music/ arts picks)
***** "THE RESISTANCE | PERILS OF THE POWER POSSE" ... ( a 2 part futuristic Ranch Chimp Journal dream to dream on )
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