Global doom and gloom.

[skjl47]

Hello; Well September is now the current "hottest " month on record for the entire world is what I have been hearing. Hottest for around the 130 or so years of record keeping anyway. Scores not in yet but some speculation 2020 will be at the top or near the top of hottest years on record. I guess in the previous few million years of human existence there may have been a hotter month equal to this just past September. Even if so this does not mask the implications.


First thing is I hope the problems with measuring stations known about a few years ago have been corrected by now. I have not seen any current reports on that particular episode. There was some level of corrupted data suspected from some of the official stations back a while. For my particular area September was not so bad. I did notice having some mild days compared to the previous year. I recall recently having a day in the 80's F and seeing the weather news for the date a year earlier was in the 90's F. Don't mean a thing of course. Note- I am not trying to say the years have not been getting warmer in general. I think they are. I have owned a 4x4 truck for decades but the last few years have had very little need for 4x4 at all.


I contend there will be both good and bad outcomes. One good for sure is the reduced cost of heating a home. Back in the 1970's my area had some very severe winters. Folks further north had it much worse. The last decade there was only one spell during a Feb when we had a bad spell with significant snow. The last few years my heating costs are much reduced. Do not get me wrong, I am not contending a cheaper heating bill offsets some of the potential bad outcomes.

Another potential good outcome might be that in years when we get enough rain the farmers get an extra cutting of hay. That played out well last year for the guys who run black angus beef cattle in the field next to my place. We had a very dry spell right before the winter season so the grass pretty much stopped growing. They had to start bringing in hay much earlier than normal. This year the rain is holding up well. I mowed grass again today and looks like I may be mowing at least one more time, maybe two. Use to be I could count on no more mowing in October, not now.

Guess I will save talk of bad outcomes for another day.

 

[pacu mom]

We've had red flag fire weather warnings for the last three days in Northern California due to wind and high temperatures and extremely low humidity. The red flag warning was lifted for our coastal area at noon today, but areas like Redding, CA still have warnings in effect until tomorrow. They have also been warned about roving power outages by PG&E due to the hazardous fire weather conditions.

 

[skjl47]

We've had red flag fire weather warnings for the last three days in Northern California due to wind and high temperatures and extremely low humidity. The red flag warning was lifted for our coastal area at noon today, but areas like Redding, CA still have warnings in effect until tomorrow. They have also been warned about roving power outages by PG&E due to the hazardous fire weather conditions.

Hello; Hope your personal luck continues to hold. You are living one of the possible bad outcome areas right now. My area had a dry spell for a few years a while back with some fires but nothing like what you are having. We went from a dry drought time to record rains and record flooding right after. Areas flooded that had never flooded before. Bridges and roads washed away. One family has gone broke trying to keep the slope behind their home stable. I figure they will lose that fight before long.

 

[Backfromthedead]

I believe the coastal redwood forests are equipped to weather any threat that wildfires present, just as they have endured for untold millenia before the most recent fires.

 

[pacu mom]

I believe the coastal redwood forests are equipped to weather any threat that wildfires present, just as they have endured for untold millenia before the most recent fires.

I hope you're right.

 

[Backfromthedead]

I hope you're right.

Real reason redwood forests disappear:

 

[esoxlucius]

Real reason redwood forests disappear:
View attachment 1436264
View attachment 1436265

That photo makes my blood boil. Look at those little parasites around the base of that once majestic tree. Same little parasites that are tearing lumps out of the amazon rainforest.

 

[skjl47]

warned about roving power outages by PG&E due to the hazardous fire weather conditions.

Hello; I think I understand part of why these power outages are now part of the common practice of utility companies. I may have it wrong from sensing it play out at a distance with only news snippets to go by. The way it appeared to play out is a major fire was blamed on a piece of power company equipment that may have failed. A transformer if memory serves. There was huge damage from the resulting fire. In some manner the power company was held responsible and got a big fine or at least got a big financial hit. So now the companies are being proactive in that they shut off the power just in case under some conditions so they will not get the blame again.

The part I bet some residents did not count on back when blame and costs were being assigned is these power outages that are becoming all too common. Feel free to fill in the details I have missed if desired as I am sure there are some missed. Maybe the power company was not keeping up the equipment to a decent standard or some such. Thing is, at least to me, the area is still having a lot of big fires even with the power shut off. So fires are still being faced and folks are having to face them without power sometimes. Also some folks who do not have fires close are now without power often.

Look at those little parasites around the base of that once majestic tree.

Hello; I have looked at people that way myself at times. However I eventually had to expand the concept to the consumers of the products that result from the actions of the loggers. In my area it is the coal miners at the start of the process. I have friends and some family who made a living digging coal. I have to take on some of the blame for whatever coal does to the environment for using electricity the last 73 years.
I can recall back when young a status symbol was having a fur coat of fur hat or some such. There was a big social movement against this practice and real fur garments feel out of favor. Worked fine for a non-essential such as fur. Not so sure it will work for wood products or electricity. A lot easier to do without a real fur coat than wood or electricity.

I recall one of my lines back in the 1980's and 90's as part of my environmental classes. That there was only about 2% of the old growth forest left in the contiential USA. Some protected in ways. In Kentucky there is a place called the Red River Gorge. I visited it back in the 1960's as part of a undergraduate class i was taking. There was a small area of old growth forest there. Mainly it was not cut because the patch was so hard to get at. I ought to go back to see what it looks like now.

 

[pacu mom]

Hello; I think I understand part of why these power outages are now part of the common practice of utility companies. I may have it wrong from sensing it play out at a distance with only news snippets to go by. The way it appeared to play out is a major fire was blamed on a piece of power company equipment that may have failed. A transformer if memory serves. There was huge damage from the resulting fire. In some manner the power company was held responsible and got a big fine or at least got a big financial hit. So now the companies are being proactive in that they shut off the power just in case under some conditions so they will not get the blame again.

The part I bet some residents did not count on back when blame and costs were being assigned is these power outages that are becoming all too common. Feel free to fill in the details I have missed if desired as I am sure there are some missed. Maybe the power company was not keeping up the equipment to a decent standard or some such. Thing is, at least to me, the area is still having a lot of big fires even with the power shut off. So fires are still being faced and folks are having to face them without power sometimes. Also some folks who do not have fires close are now without power often.



Hello; I have looked at people that way myself at times. However I eventually had to expand the concept to the consumers of the products that result from the actions of the loggers. In my area it is the coal miners at the start of the process. I have friends and some family who made a living digging coal. I have to take on some of the blame for whatever coal does to the environment for using electricity the last 73 years.
I can recall back when young a status symbol was having a fur coat of fur hat or some such. There was a big social movement against this practice and real fur garments feel out of favor. Worked fine for a non-essential such as fur. Not so sure it will work for wood products or electricity. A lot easier to do without a real fur coat than wood or electricity.

I recall one of my lines back in the 1980's and 90's as part of my environmental classes. That there was only about 2% of the old growth forest left in the contiential USA. Some protected in ways. In Kentucky there is a place called the Red River Gorge. I visited it back in the 1960's as part of a undergraduate class i was taking. There was a small area of old growth forest there. Mainly it was not cut because the patch was so hard to get at. I ought to go back to see what it looks like now.

You are correct. The devastating Camp Fire that destroyed Paradise CA and other towns was an electrical transmission fire from a PG&E power line. 86 people died. We have a cousin that lost everything. PG&E equipment was implicated in several fires in 2017 and 2018. They filed for bankruptcy protection last year. They are responsible for 9 wildfires of 10 acres or larger in 2019 and many other fires in 2017 and 2018 for 1500 fires in the last six years. They have to pay 13.5 billion dollars to wildfire victims.

PG&E: California power firm to pay $13.5bn to wildfire victims

Utility giant PG&E reaches a settlement over several fires tied to the firm's equipment.

www.bbc.com

Over 1,500 California fires in the past 6 years — including the deadliest ever — were caused by one company: PG&E. Here's what it could have done but didn't.

Regular blackouts are PG&E's new strategy to avoid starting fires. A writer called it "the most detested, and detestable, corporation in California."

www.businessinsider.com

It goes on and on. The recent Zogg fire points to PG&E

Team investigating deadly Calif. fire seizes PG&E equipment

Fire investigators looking into what caused a wildfire that killed four people in far Northern California have taken possession of equipment belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric

abcnews.go.com

 

[jjohnwm]

That photo makes my blood boil. Look at those little parasites around the base of that once majestic tree. Same little parasites that are tearing lumps out of the amazon rainforest.

That's a bit harsh. Those "parasites" are simply hard-working men doing a job that paid the bills and supported them and their families. The apparent vintage of those photos suggests they were taken many years ago, when there was much less general awareness of the problems of deforestation and other abuses of the natural world. To judge them by today's yardstick of sensibilities is not really fair.

I am mostly retired but still work several months each year, travelling to remote locations to work on the construction of large projects. My current gig is on an enormous hydro-electric project in the north. The river in question is a roiling, boiling, seething mass of white water, and the potential energy in that water is captured by building a dam and creating a huge reservoir, from which water is allowed to pass through turbines that create electricity.

This is very clean energy, with essentially no by-products or pollutants released by the process of harnessing it. The water released from the dam is carefully monitored to ensure that it is the same temperature, pH, and clarity (turbidity) as it was before the construction began, so downstream aquatic life is unaffected. Fish ladders and by-passes are provided to allow migratory fish...of which there are not many in these waters...access to move freely above and below the dam.

Nevertheless, some of the typically strident tree-huggers that proliferate in today's world bemoan the "impact" of this project. They wring their hands and wail about the area that is flooded...which encompasses something like 0.000005 percent of the total area of this provinces Taiga. They cry sadly at the huge inconvenience suffered by the migrating caribou on their twice-yearly passage through the region, because now the animals crossing points are inaccessible for several kilometers of the river's stretch...which hardly seems a valid complaint, considering the many thousands of kilometers these animals traverse in the course of a year.

Currently, the oft-heard complaint is that the level of noise-pollution in the immediate vicinity of the dam may be stressing the animals. Yes, really... I have always considered myself a conservationist, but listening to some of these people embarrasses me. They sound so ridiculous that they hurt their own cause, and embarrass those who might be inclined to side with them on many other topics.

The point I am circling towards is that it's far too easy nowadays to point fingers at just about anybody doing any kind of work that maintains society...but it is the existence of this society that allows the naysayers the freedom, the comfort and the time to pursue their radical views and push them upon others. These complainers did not exist in previous times, because nobody would have fed, clothed and supported them; if they had to do so for themselves, they'd be too busy working and would have no time to come up with new things about which to complain. But now they can afford the leisure of whining full-time, to such an extent that their views are heard and believed by large segments of the population who then parrot them because it's the "thing to do..."