The Barren Earth

Two days ago Mrs. Pistachio and myself drove down into San Diego County. Currently, the nearest branch of my credit union is in a town called Escondido.

It was amazing how the smell of smoke over the last few days lessened to the point that we smelled it no more at the house. As our drive took us south into San Diego County that changed. Then the smell of smoke and charred landscape filled my truck, and the view of the barren earth filled my vision.

From the freeway we observed blackened slopes and hills. A few trees survived, but all of the brush was gone. And what we were looking at was only from the Rice Canyon Fire at Fallbrook, the smallest of the fires. And, that one is still burning. . . just not near the freeway anymore. They expect to bring that fire under containment by November 5th.

And to my dismay (and I joked that this would be the case before these stories surfaced) the environmentalists and a number of liberals are blaming the fires on Global Warming.

Let me explain this to you carefully. The fires began for a number of reasons, and the majority of them are man made. Southern California is very dry, and the Santa Ana winds blow ferociously. Abandoned campfires, sparks caused inadvertently, tossed cigarettes and arson are all repeated causes. Every once in a while a lightning strike or unknown combustion is the cause as well. Global Warming is hardly the cause. In fact, those environmentalists that proclaim that they are here to protect us from ourselves, and protect the environment from evil humans, are the main cause the fires were so bad. Environmentalists are against fire breaks - you know, those pre-burned sections that create boundaries that keep wildfires from burning out of control. And they don't allow the clearance of brush around homes in many areas either - because the creation of such a defensible area may disturb the ecological balance. So, what they are saying, is let it burn when the firestorm comes, along with the house next to it.

Man made Global Warming, which many have trouble swallowing as being true anyway, didn't cause the tragedy that turned Southern California into a vast barren landscape (which will be the site of horrendous mudslides that will kill people and destroy homes when it starts raining), but the people that try to force Global Warming down your throat did cause the severity of the emergency, and the widespread deadliness of the fires.

And I doubt they will participate in the rebuilding of the charred areas, much less devise a plan to protect us from the next sequence of firestorms.