<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<p>Jochen -</p>
<p>I grew up in a Forest Service household in NM and AZ where my
father had a "fire radio" in the dining room (in a nook with a
sliding door) which ran 24/7 during the fire season. It was a
very remote area (on the edge of the first designated US
wilderness areas, and one of the first US Forest Service
districts)... There were 2 lookout towers who chattered pretty
continuously through that period reporting lightning strikes and
fire perimeters/progression. In spite of the large timber sales
in the area, the policy was to allow a great deal of natural fire
(also lacking resources to put them out). My father traveled to
the Pacific Northwest and California nearly every year for at
least 2 weeks to lead a firefighting crew (Zuni and Hopi native
crews) where the *big fires* were. </p>
<p>At the time it seemed out-of-scale, at least the ones in
CA/WA/OR, though in the southern rockies where we lived, the fuel
load and topography just didn't support the huge fires. My
father had *some* idea that the emerging policies around
protecting Timber (to sell for pennies on the dollar to Big
Timber) and Range (to benefit the small and large ranchers who had
the luck or guile to get grazing allotments at a similar discount)
was going to lead to problems. He seemed to understand that our
modern fossil fuel-driven economy was on a crash course of some
time but I think Climate Change was too large for him to
imagine. <br>
</p>
<p>I "survived" the two major fires that threatened Los Alamos in
2000 and then 2011? It was my first wakeup call, having watched
the class of fires that happened in the high desert mountains like
ours being either containable or naturally self-limiting (compared
to the West Coast)... With Los Alamos (Plutonium Facility in
particular) being about the most critical thing to protect from
such a conflagration (think aerosolizing even the smallest stores
of Pu?). It *did* get deterred from the worst risks but I was
mightily alerted to how helpless we are in the face of something
like this.</p>
<p>Until about 2000 I was a mild climate denier, feeling that it was
"human hubris" to believe we could tip the biosphere as radically
as it appears we have (and continue to). I was working with (not
yet named as such) Climate Scientists (oceanographic, atmospheric,
etc modelers) and even they were reluctant to say it out loud
(officially) but they (without exception) said privately that they
were living *their lives* as if Climate Change (then referred to
as Global Warming) were an absolute certainty. It moved me (very
slightly/slowly) and I began to go from being a mild
environmentalist to a mild Climate Change believer. I'm a bit
less "mild" about it now <grin>. <br>
</p>
<p>I just saw a notice on a local community social media site that
there was only one insurance company willing to provide (wild)fire
insurance in White Rock (and Los Alamos?). Sounds like Florida
and Flood/Hurricane insurance?</p>
<p>On a tangent, we just watched the most recent movie adaptation of
the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life. We had read a biography
of his life so we knew the general outlines and the final ending
to his story, but this particular performance/dramatization made
it ?nicely? more personal and helped me (yet more) to appreciate
what that era must have been like for a huge portion of the
German population who were neither Nazis nor even sympathetic to
the movement. Sadly it seems way to prophetic or salient to
where we (the US for sure, maybe the entire "West" as well) are?
<br>
</p>
<p>I tend to be a bit of a "hopium fueled optimist" but even I am
having a hard time making up "don't worry your pretty little head"
stories... Bonhoeffer's story was mildly inspirational as an
example of how to "just keep on doing the right thing, no matter
how it seems to be turning out".</p>
<p>- Steve<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 1/8/25 10:21 AM, Jochen Fromm wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:202501081722.508HM3qX024373@ame1.swcp.com">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
I fear it will get worse now every year. More and bigger wildfires
in California. Higher temperatures and less rain.
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">If Kamala would have elected there would have been
wildfires as well but at least some hope that steps will be
taken to protect the climate. Under a new Trump administration I
see no hope.</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">L.A. is burning from all sides now. The famous
Hollywood sign is surrounded by fires. <br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.latimes.com/wildfires-map/">https://www.latimes.com/wildfires-map/</a></div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">The wildfires will probably come to Santa Fe too
in the next years. Like the ones in NM last year, only worse.</div>
<div dir="auto"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_New_Mexico_wildfires">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_New_Mexico_wildfires</a></div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto">-J.</div>
<div dir="auto"><br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div dir="auto" style="font-size:100%;color:#000000" align="left">
<div>-------- Original message --------</div>
<div>From: steve smith <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com"><sasmyth@swcp.com></a> </div>
<div>Date: 1/8/25 5:52 PM (GMT+01:00) </div>
<div>To: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:friam@redfish.com">friam@redfish.com</a> </div>
<div>Subject: Re: [FRIAM] L.A. wildfires </div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
A good friend who grew up in Pacific Palisades recently moved his
<br>
elderly parents to an assisted living.<br>
<br>
As it unfolds, they are on the very edge of the acutely threatened
zone, <br>
holding on for evacuation orders (at least the facility will <br>
"facilitate" that as it would not have been reasonable at all in
their <br>
90s to self-evacuate if they were still in the family home. The
family <br>
home, built in the 60s was purchased by a private developer (after
much <br>
negotiation) to surely be razed and replaced by a mcMansion. The
move <br>
was 6 months ago and the home sale closed the day before our
elections <br>
(by design).<br>
<br>
My friend is in HI right now (visiting Kilauea and Waipio) but his
<br>
brother lives in the LA area, able to attend to the parents
anxiety more <br>
directly. The family home has not been engulfed yet, but if/when
it <br>
does, it may actually increase the value of the property to new
owner <br>
(the anticipated razing being done on insurance/FEMA's
nickle?).... but <br>
he just watched the high school he attended (70s) burn to the
ground on TV.<br>
<br>
<snark> I think Donald Trump is about to announce that this
is the price <br>
of LA and CA being a "Liberal Hellhole" and that if they would
just <br>
"rake their forests" these things wouldn't happen. Part of the <br>
Liberal/Chinese hoax about Climate Change and extreme weather?
If <br>
Kamala had been elected the fires would be much worse! At least
it <br>
wasn't triggered by a Cybertruck loaded with fireworks, (legal) <br>
firearms, and other accelerants blown up by a MAGA supporter. If
we <br>
owned Greenland and Canada we could pipe their water (or even <br>
snowpack/glaciers) down to dump on the fires... maybe the Boring
<br>
Company is already tunneling under middle America to facilitate <br>
this?</snark><br>
<br>
SimTable is probably looped in with the myriad
evacuation/fire-fighting <br>
activities? I'm betting there may be a Pixelated Pile O' Sand on
Lena <br>
street in the shape of the LA hills and valleys?<br>
<br>
<br>
On 1/8/25 5:17 AM, Jochen Fromm wrote:<br>
> I hope everybody is OK in L.A.? Especially Russ ? The news do
not <br>
> sound good<br>
>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.npr.org/2025/01/07/g-s1-41408/pacific-palisades-fire-wind-california">https://www.npr.org/2025/01/07/g-s1-41408/pacific-palisades-fire-wind-california</a><br>
><br>
> -J.<br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-.
--- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-..<br>
> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv<br>
> Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p
Zoom <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://bit.ly/virtualfriam">https://bit.ly/virtualfriam</a><br>
> to (un)subscribe
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a><br>
> FRIAM-COMIC <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</a><br>
> archives: 5/2017 thru present
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/">https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/</a><br>
> 1/2003 thru 6/2021 <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/">http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/</a><br>
<br>
.- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. ---
-. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-..<br>
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv<br>
Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://bit.ly/virtualfriam">https://bit.ly/virtualfriam</a><br>
to (un)subscribe
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a><br>
FRIAM-COMIC <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</a><br>
archives: 5/2017 thru present
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/">https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/</a><br>
1/2003 thru 6/2021 <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/">http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/</a><br>
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">.- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-..
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://bit.ly/virtualfriam">https://bit.ly/virtualfriam</a>
to (un)subscribe <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com">http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com</a>
FRIAM-COMIC <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/">http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/</a>
archives: 5/2017 thru present <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/">https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/</a>
1/2003 thru 6/2021 <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/">http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>