How "global warming" causes wildfires--it's called government incompetence

AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

The Hawaiian wildfire that killed scores of people in Maui has been blamed on global warming (or “global boiling” now), which apparently is another term for the complete incompetence of the worthless human beings in charge of protecting citizens from known and obvious dangers.

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As in California and Canada, where wildfires were caused by human beings either through malice or incompetence, the powers that be have decided to blame another human source: the offending of Gaia by human beings in their mad dash to burn fossil fuels.

Global warming: is there nothing it can’t explain?

The New York Times did a deep dive into what happened on the idyllic island of Maui and found exactly what you would expect–a chain of incompetence that wound up with the deaths of a hundred or more people and the destruction of Lahaina, the former capitol of the Hawaiian kingdom.

The facts themselves are indisputable: this tragedy not only could easily have been but should have been averted by taking a few precautions that had already been recommended but ignored. The danger was known, the conditions in which the danger could be realized were at hand, and the authorities were fighting the fire for hours but never warned or evacuated citizens.

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Nearly a week has passed since the inferno that swept West Maui last Tuesday. At least 99 people are confirmed dead, with the toll expected to rise substantially. Thousands of structures, mostly homes, have been reduced to rubble. Husks of incinerated cars line Lahaina’s historic Front Street, while nearby search crews make their way painstakingly from house to house, looking for human remains.

The fire’s swift rampage and stunning death and destruction are already raising questions about whether there should have been more aggressive management of electrical power as high winds buffeted the island, earlier warnings for residents in the fire’s path and better management of traffic to avert the paralyzing gridlock that funneled many people into a death trap.

Interviews and video evidence reviewed by The New York Times show that the brush fire that wound up wiping out Lahaina ignited under a snapped power line a full nine hours before it roared through town — flaring up in the afternoon after firefighters had declared it contained.

Yet in dozens of interviews with people who survived, residents in neighborhood after neighborhood said they had received no warnings before the fire came rushing toward their homes. They told stories of people scrambling to escape along the waterfront and driving past others who were cluelessly frolicking on the beaches. Some stood outside their houses, marveling at what was unfolding, still sipping cocktails. Tourists who got the word packed up and fled their hotels, while others were rolling in with their luggage.

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Downed powerlines sparked a fire. Firefighters battled it for 9 hours and declared it contained. Nobody was warned. The fire flared up out of control, and then a city was burned and scores of people died.

Gaia was angry, they tell us. Quit driving your car, stop agriculture, and eat bugs.

Blame the cow farts. Seriously. We keep being told this is your fault and mine, while the people who screwed up big time are supposed to be praised for looking out for us.

As the fire spread further into town, the problems multiplied: Hydrants ran dry as the community’s water system collapsed, according to firefighters. Powerful sirens, tested every month in preparation for such an emergency, never sounded. Lahaina’s 911 system went down.

Many of those who evacuated said they were corralled by road closures and downed power lines into traffic jams that left some people to burn alive in their cars and forced others to flee into the Pacific. Videos shared with The Times and posted on social media show cars on Front Street crawling in bumper-to-bumper traffic as smoke, embers and debris billow around them.

Every single system designed to address this danger failed. Obviously, the solution is to hand more money and power over to the people who failed us. If only we had all listened to them and abandoned modern technology Gaia would have been pleased and spared the people who died.

Gov. Josh Green of Hawaii has said repeatedly since the fire that climate change is “the ultimate reason that so many people perished.” He has asked the attorney general to conduct a comprehensive review.

“Over time,” he promised, “we’ll be able to figure out if we could have better protected people.”

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Climate change. Just as climate change led to the arsonists setting fires in Canada, and to PG&E’s negligence in taking care that its power lines are properly maintained and that the area surrounding them is fireproofed.

“It’s not our fault,” the elite tell us. “It’s your fault for wanting to live like modern human beings.”

If there is one thing that you can count on in life it is the powers that be demanding that we hand more money and power to them when they fail to do their jobs properly. If only we sacrifice our incomes and our autonomy the gods of government might be more merciful.

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | November 21, 2024
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David Strom 11:20 AM | November 21, 2024
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