California fires

Yesterday and today. Like Covid and climate 'change', an historical perspective is useful in understanding the relative change and -- often -- the lack of change for the worse that the popular press would have us to believe.

First look is at the Santa Cruz mountains of northern California, where seemingly unprecedented and disastrous burns are underway, blamed in part on a 'severe' draught. So let's look to 1936 (see Forest Fires headline, below).

Next, considering the trend in acreage lost to forest fires in the past hundred years (see Figure 16-1, below, courtesy of the Forest Service).

As to the devastation of giant redwoods, look at another Forest Service report on 'Fire Cavities,' below.

Finally, let's look at the record for droughts in California, going back more than a thousand years.

Rather than lecture you, if you have read this far and have heard the reports on the national news media, form your own conclusions.