A law of nature that constrains all we do...

 

 

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Forest fires are as natural as rain. People are building in dangerous, fire prone areas with the fire equivalent of strike-anywhere match-heads that are ready to burn from flying embers and we are attempting countermeasures to those fires that require massive resources to work effectively. Nature just tests, builds stored energy and waits for cracks in our defenses until the day our countermeasures are inadequate (due to basic human nature) to the threat.

 

Forest fires are as natural as rain. People are building in dangerous, fire prone areas with the fire equivalent of strike-anywhere match-heads that are ready to burn from flying embers and we are attempting countermeasures to those fires that require massive resources to work effectively. Nature just tests, builds stored energy and waits for cracks in our defenses until the day our countermeasures are inadequate (due to basic human nature) to the threat.

The issue is mitigation. Imagine if these funds were spent on infrastructure, water retention, controlled burns, and fire fighting personnel.

Instead, they were completely wasted.

This is an exemplary case: politics has cause death and unimaginable destruction.

 

The issue is mitigation. Imagine if these funds were spent on infrastructure, water retention, controlled burns, and fire fighting personnel.

Instead, they were completely wasted.

This is an exemplary case: politics has cause death and unimaginable destruction.

True to some extent but it's folly IMO to expect humans to be in constant fear of future destruction. The politics just determines where the money will be wasted or used, not the fact it will eventually be diverted to something else.

 

...it's folly IMO to expect humans to be in constant fear of future destruction.

Who said anything about fear?

You plan for expected outcomes. Everyone knew this fire was going to occur eventually (those who didn't should have just asked their insurance company!). Just like in Florida, we know we're going to get hit by a big one, so we plan for it and prepare to the best of our ability.

As you seem to think humans are powerless to mitigate against the worst that Gaia can throw at us, we should just all move back into caves.

Human progress is, mainly, an epic story about man vs. nature. We used to relish and win that fight.

Now we let the weeds grow up all around us, and we honor the weeds instead of the competent man.

 

Honoring weeds everywhere.

https://nypost.com/2025/01/09/opinion/blame-la-fire-horror-on-the-woke-religions-ruin-of-our-cities/

 

I've been down that road many times when I lived in SoCal.

 

 

https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1877757377597862370

 

The wind has shifted and now the fire is headed elsewhere in LA.

 

 

 

Even the homeless are now 'homeless'.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/experts-share-inconvenient-truths-wildfires-113520873.html
Experts share inconvenient truths about the wildfires burning in LA

"We have fire departments that are continually telling us that they're going to protect us," he said, "when they can't during the extreme wildfire conditions. It's time to recognize the reality and start asking questions about how it is that we're failing to prevent this disaster."

Cohen calls it a sense of entitlement that we will be protected, a feeling that is reinforced by fire protection agencies, even when it's unrealistic.

The National Fire Prevention Association a national non-profit that provides standards for fire suppression operations, calls for a minimum of three engines or 15 firefighters for a single-residence fire a number that is impossible to attain when fighting a fire on the scale of the Palisades or Eaton fires.

"We're not recognizing, analyzing, questioning how we're failing," Cohen said. "We just think we need more airplanes and more helicopters flying 24 hours a day."

 

Does this go here, or in one of the EV/battery threads?

https://apnews.com/article/battery-...moss-landing-7c561fed096f410ddecfb04722a8b1f8

 

Does this go here, or in one of the EV/battery threads?

https://apnews.com/article/battery-...moss-landing-7c561fed096f410ddecfb04722a8b1f8

All of the above.

Lithium iron phosphate batteries are a possible alternative because they are highly stable, but they still carry some fire risk.
No matter what kind of battery you use, “when you reach a certain size, it is inherently very dangerous and easy to catch fire,” said Yiguang Ju, engineering professor at Princeton University.

It really doesn't matter what Lithium battery technology you use as eventually the power density will become equivalent to an explosive during a uncontrolled discharge. A pure EM energy discharge into conductors creates a plasma blast that can kill people, destroy equipment (physically moving and smashing it) and cause massive fires external to the battery source.

Most utility connected events will eventually trip breakers to isolate the energy source but utility scale battery sourced shorting events are self-contained and powered by internal chemistry, so some method of neutralization (or intrinsically safe battery technology) similar to fission damping rods will be needed to make safer utility scale systems.

Even hydro can have explosive energy events. High density energy generation, storage and usage is inherently dangerous but we can engineer safer systems.

 

 

 

https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/his...ears-ago-hes-finally-done-rebuilding-1d96ba3e
His Malibu House Burned Down Six Years Ago. He’s Finally Done Rebuilding.
A surfer’s experience is a grim preview of what likely lies ahead for Southern Californians after wildfires wiped out entire neighborhoods

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