Eugene Robinson: A Good Idea, Up in Flames

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



A Good Idea, Up in Flames
Posted on Aug 31, 2009

By Eugene Robinson


Los Angeles seemed like a good idea at the time. It was a good idea, actually—the setting is spectacular and the weather is perfect. No wonder millions of people decide to live there, and it’s only logical that some of them would build their homes in the canyon-creased hills that look out across the vast urban basin to the infinite sparkling sea.

But every year, some of those canyons will burn. It’s a cycle of destruction and renewal that will inexorably run its course unless humankind intervenes—which means that intervention is a good idea. That means not just moving heaven and earth to put out the fires that do start, but also doing everything possible to keep fires from starting in the first place.

Fire prevention and suppression were so successful that many of the canyons leading up Mount Wilson north of Pasadena hadn’t burned for 40 years or more—until now. And since these slopes haven’t recently been scoured by fire, they are choked with dry chaparral that is like a thicket of tinder, making the conflagration that began over the weekend much worse than it otherwise would have been. The huge “Station fire”—they give them names in Los Angeles—has so far claimed two firefighters’ lives, burned more than 20 homes and scorched at least 130 square miles.

Does this mean we never should have built Los Angeles, or that we never should have listened to Smokey the Bear? Of course not. But it does remind us of how much time and effort we spend dealing with the consequences of decisions that seemed like good ideas at the time.

And I haven’t even mentioned earthquakes.

This is no screed against Southern California. Perhaps an even better example of the burden of a good idea is New Orleans—which, truth be told, looked iffy from the start. The first French settlers realized how precarious the site was, with Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Mississippi River to the south. Their concern was justified when a hurricane promptly swept in and blew the fledgling town away. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090831_a_good_idea_up_in_flames/

[Demeter]

1. Definition of Insanity Applies Here

[Barack_America]

2. No, no, no. There is a difference.

Rich white people live in those hills, thus they must be rebuilt.

[izquierdista]

3. A man's got to know his limitations

Fire suppression and the building of levees have one thing in common: man trying to conquer nature. It may work for a while, but the 40-year fire and the 100-year flood make a mockery of man's efforts. The better thing to do is live with the cycles of nature, be they fire or flood. Had New Orleans accepted all the clean fill generated in a hundred mile radius of the city and planned to use it to raise building pads in the city, after a few decades, the city might not be below sea level. Had Los Angeles planned burns every spring and reseeded the areas with low growing native plants, the chaparral might not rise to disastrous levels.

[tabatha]

4. If an area of chaparral has been left alone for 40 years

how is that fire suppression?

After a fire, it can take somewhere up to 30 years for chaparral to recover. There are many stands of chaparral that have survived for 100 years and have not burned - not because of fire suppression, but because nothing has sparked a fire to burn them.

I don't think that Eugene Robinson knows what he is talking about

[marmar]

5. I don't think that's what he was saying....perhaps you should re-read that paragraph.

[tabatha]

6. This is the sentence that makes no sense.

"Fire prevention and suppression were so successful that many of the canyons leading up Mount Wilson north of Pasadena hadn’t burned for 40 years or more—until now."

40 years can sometimes be too soon for a chaparral fire.

And if fire prevention means unnecessary fires from humans, then that is the responsible thing to do.

Too frequent fires are bad for chaparral, because if it cannot grow back in time, it is replaced by even more inflammable aliens.

[thereismore]

7. Eugene Robinson is one of my fave guests at Countdown. nt