Daniel Turner: Hey, AOC, California wildfires look like government dereliction of duty not climate change
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Once again California is burning. We have been here before. Why are we back?
“This is what climate change looks like” tweeted liberal Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sharing images of a burning state and showing support for her Green New Deal, the vegan-mandating, airplane-eliminating, hundred trillion dollar regressive proposal.
Climate change is the cause, and legislation, putting government in charge of everything, is the answer.
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For a liberal government is always the answer.
Climate change is the perfect villain. It is nameless, faceless, and most of all, it is everywhere.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}At first the evils of climate change were relegated to the climate meaning blistering heat. But then, so too is the polar vortex blamed on climate change. As is too much snow or a lack of snow.
One radical green group The National Resources Defense Council has attributed both droughts and floods to climate change which conveniently covers all bases.
Over time every phenomena in nature from hurricanes to tornados to typhoons to earthquakes were caused or exacerbated by climate change. This was intentional: show how climate change was the problem and thus grow support for the government solution.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But why stop at nature? What if we can show that climate change is the “real” cause of illegal immigration and also the need for greater government-run health care? What if climate change contributes to racism, and misogyny?
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Climate change, according to President Obama, was our greatest national security threat and was responsible for much of America’s crumbling infrastructure. The publications “Scientific American” presumably “scholarly” and “academic”, has articles saying it will hurt both rural areas and urban areas the most which you would think violates Aristotle’s foundational law of non-contradiction, but who needs foundational laws when there’s so much politics to do…
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Add to that ever-growing list California’s fires. Because this is certain: climate change is the cause, and government is the solution. And that is very, very convenient for elected officials.
It matters little that the governor is “committed to addressing climate change” when he’s not committed to preventing forest fires.
If a mayor or a governor, or even the president, can blame everything on the ethereal and yet omnipotent “climate change” he can quite literally wash his hands of responsibility and justify both lethargy and incompetence. Sure, an administrator could take steps to mitigate California’s fires, but climate change is different. In the months where California was fire-free (roughly mid-December 2018 and mid-May 2019) what did the state do to prevent fires? Nothing. Why? Climate change.
There are a few man-made reasons why California seems to be constantly burning.
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First off: it is dry. Not from climate change but from poor water management. Earlier this year the Sierra Nevada snowpack was 202 percent above the average (probably caused by climate change) with ski slopes operating into July. Where did the melt go? It is diverted, and California’s waterways do not run naturally. So much so that a proposal was introduced in 2010 to allow at least 60 percent of the rivers to flow unencumbered. Last year that was reduced to 40 percent, and the policy has still not been implemented. California doesn’t lack water; it lacks flowing water.
California’s forest are ignored, a claim President Trump made with which even Californians agree on. Decades of “green” policies protecting trees and wildlife, good intentions aside, created a tinder box of dead wood and overgrown brush. n some areas, locals are hoping the timber industry can prevent further fires. The private sector to the rescue, yet again.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Prevention goes a long way, and California does have resources. It’s cap-and-trade program, albeit bad economics, annually generates $11 billion with an entire bureaucracy appropriating it to “green” investments. The program has spent over $1 billion in grants for electric cars. Since 2001 it has given over $100 billion in green technology subsidies. Nothing for fire preventing or mitigation strategies.
In a recent press conference, California’s Governor Newsom said “Californians are bearing the brunt of these wildfires” and he’s absolutely right. Neither southern Oregon nor Western Nevada seem to suffer the same pinpointed effects of global climate change as California, which further demonstrates its wounds are largely self-inflicted.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Could climate change be the reason for excessive winds and dry weather? Of course. But when does a governor start governing? When does a leader start leading? It matters little that the governor is “committed to addressing climate change” when he’s not committed to preventing forest fires.
“This is what climate change looks like” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez tweeted with the hashtag “#GreenNewDeal”. But she is wrong on both counts. What’s happening in California is what government incompetence and dereliction of duty looks like. And big government is not the solution.