Parts of eastern Pennsylvania have been burning for decades too -- fuel for NYC's "coal fired" pizza ovens!
We are expecting smokey skies in western PA, eastern OH starting soon.
There is a way to stop the forest fires but guess what it requires quite a lot of money and the industrial military complex in all countries has far too much control of the politicians/******, so taxes are spent on very expensive military hardware. If you build watch towers above the height of forests you can (a) use digital visual equipment or human visual aka retired and or students to spot fires immediately.
An here's the expensive part lay down a system of water lines which can be accessed remotely to douse fires before they get out of control. Just like you have autonomous lawn mowers now, so it would be easy to construct and use machines that dealt with undergrowth.
The forests, especially deciduous ones are the planets lungs, along with addressing human over population we need to replant so much forest that has been cut down. In the East and now in Africa so much forest has been cut down to create palm oil plantations. the fact that this cooking oil has serious negative health effects as well should have meant that the forests were left alone but as always - follow the money.
An here's the expensive part lay down a system of water lines which can be accessed remotely to douse fires before they get out of control. Just like you have autonomous lawn mowers now, so it would be easy to construct and use machines that dealt with undergrowth.
The forests, especially deciduous ones are the planets lungs, along with addressing human over population we need to replant so much forest that has been cut down. In the East and now in Africa so much forest has been cut down to create palm oil plantations. the fact that this cooking oil has serious negative health effects as well should have meant that the forests were left alone but as always - follow the money.
Fire spotting towers have been used in Australia since the early 1900's but it's challenging in a large place. Our State, Western Australia, has only 13 towers but is 10 times the size of the UK or 3 1/2 times the size of Texas (of course, it's not all bushland!). When some nutcase starts a fire deliberately on a 40C windy summer's day we have no chance,
The Eastern states have many more towers - Victoria has about 70 towers in operation.
The Eastern states have many more towers - Victoria has about 70 towers in operation.
There are about 2,000 fire lookout towers in the US, at the peak there were between 8,000 and 10,000.
It's interesting that about 1/3 of the US land mass is forrested, and that even with suburbanization, exurbanization, fires and forestry, the amount of forested land is roughly the same as it was 70 years ago.
Anecdotal reports support Stuey's comment about deliberately set fires, not all are accidental or resulting from lightening strikes.
USWS put out air quality warning for our part of Ohio - at 248.
It's interesting that about 1/3 of the US land mass is forrested, and that even with suburbanization, exurbanization, fires and forestry, the amount of forested land is roughly the same as it was 70 years ago.
Anecdotal reports support Stuey's comment about deliberately set fires, not all are accidental or resulting from lightening strikes.
USWS put out air quality warning for our part of Ohio - at 248.
Black Stuart, I am not sure you realize how big Canada is in land mass. Come over and take a drive across the country, it’s all forest, mostly conifers, which run on turps, very sparsely populated
I put a couple of cedar greens on the fire and wow a flame thrower, won’t do that with green deciduous leaves, they will put the fire out.
Imo we should be buying way more water bombers vs blowing billons on F-35 jets. Glad to hear Americans, even Europeans getting smoked out, puts some reality on the global scale of these fires and need to extinguish ASAP.
I put a couple of cedar greens on the fire and wow a flame thrower, won’t do that with green deciduous leaves, they will put the fire out.
Imo we should be buying way more water bombers vs blowing billons on F-35 jets. Glad to hear Americans, even Europeans getting smoked out, puts some reality on the global scale of these fires and need to extinguish ASAP.
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I'm no expert but as I do 'realize how big Canada is' and I'm not sure how a water bomber has much to say about large scale fires ?
So what’s your answer to putting these fires out. Hoses, Rain dancing, seeding clouds, let it burn out, cut down the trees?
I go with, identify ASAP = technology, react ASAP, get on them before they grow out of control. Folks more concerned about a bunch of rich idiots emploding at the bottom of the ocean than reacting to a global problem. The world has its priorities all f’d up.
I go with, identify ASAP = technology, react ASAP, get on them before they grow out of control. Folks more concerned about a bunch of rich idiots emploding at the bottom of the ocean than reacting to a global problem. The world has its priorities all f’d up.
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The fires have been "out of control" for weeks.
This is just mother nature cleaning house. We have **** all over the environment for hundreds of years and this should come as no surprise. I'm not convinced there is any kind of short term remedy. It could be devastating for humanity if it becomes established as a pattern.
Like I always say, that and $6 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
This is just mother nature cleaning house. We have **** all over the environment for hundreds of years and this should come as no surprise. I'm not convinced there is any kind of short term remedy. It could be devastating for humanity if it becomes established as a pattern.
Like I always say, that and $6 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
And the smoke in my area is worse than yesterday. I can smell the smoke in the house even with the windows closed and AC on. In fact it woke me up last night; for a moment I thought the house was on fire.
Thanks to the Canadians, normally we import wood from you and pay for it. Now you are sending it to us and others for free. However in the current form it is at best used as fertilizer for only some soils.
The issue among foresters is that in the past the effort was to extinguish all forest fires, no matter how small. Current thinking is small fires clear the brush (Housekeeping Fires) and prevent larger fires that burn grown trees. So to a certain extent we are in a transition period. (On the informal fire scale this one is a MF!!!)
Now the remote smoke is certainly annoying, however if you have ever faced a massive fire, it is incredible. I suspect if you are in Canada and spot someone without eyebrows, you might want to thank them for their work. (My experience is that they do grow back.)
I do use air filters inside home and work. I have now reminded myself to replace the work air filters early!
The issue among foresters is that in the past the effort was to extinguish all forest fires, no matter how small. Current thinking is small fires clear the brush (Housekeeping Fires) and prevent larger fires that burn grown trees. So to a certain extent we are in a transition period. (On the informal fire scale this one is a MF!!!)
Now the remote smoke is certainly annoying, however if you have ever faced a massive fire, it is incredible. I suspect if you are in Canada and spot someone without eyebrows, you might want to thank them for their work. (My experience is that they do grow back.)
I do use air filters inside home and work. I have now reminded myself to replace the work air filters early!
Do you have a citation about what you say about foresters? I have heard that argument many times, but always from a climate change denier, so I would love a proper citation.
I am on the Ohio river about 12 miles south of I-70. It is quite smoky now and has been getting worse all day. I have been working outside all day, but it looks like it's time to call it a day now.
Very good chance those mustard seeds were grown in Saskatchewan and exported to France.
According to my sister near Cleveland OH, the air quality got to 280 this afternoon. As we drove west from NJ to OH, the density of the smoke increased markedly after Dubois, enough so that dinner on the road with an orange sky once again (Simon -- Emlenton truck stop on I-80)
I can't find a citation for what Ed says, but controlled burns are clearly a thing. https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/our-work/programs/prescribed-burning and I would 'assume' that if a small area catches and can be contained they would add it to the controlled burn list.
I find it fascinating how well evolved a lot of Amercian flora is to cope with fire as it shows forests have been burning for millenia and there is evidence of mega droughts over the last 300 years. So is it actually worse now, or just we have better records now? I'd love to talk with someone whose had access to all the data on this.
Maybe more goats are the answer? https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...reagan-library-california-wildfire-180973461/
I do know how big Canada is and the USA - these two countries are the whole of the continent of North America. I totally agree about tax payers money spent on hugely expensive military hardware and I do realise that there are always little men who want to emulate Caesar, unfortunately they don't all get stabbed to death early on.
jackinnj - thanks for the historical input on watch towers. These should never have decreased in number. With modern materials maintenance should never be a significant expense and with modern technology at a reasonable cost (deducted from the military/industrial budget) all forests could be covered and I think rsavas comment about water bombers is a good one.
Stuey's input on watch towers in Oz coupled with the enormous amount that is soon to be spent on nuclear submarines there shows just how dysfunctional politicians are across the planet.
Not all the scumbags who deliberately start fires have mental health issues. In the Peloponnese in Greece a lot of forest was burned deliberately so that developers could build new housing. Unfortunately we live in a time when the firestarters are handled with kid gloves and have 'human rights'. Being an old fashioned Celt I know that 'conditional therapy' works but lawyers and the like don't get to make money - so it goes.
what other monitoring methods are used for fires? With the amount of earth observation out there, and the fallibility of a bored human* up a tower I assume that all sorts of other tech is being thrown at the problem these days that might have a higher/more rapid hit rate. example https://smokedsystem.com/detector/ and ignore the liberal use of 'AI' in their marketing blurb. at 10 miles range though that's a lorra cameras to cover anything not near a city.
*Note I am not questioning the dedication of the tower occupants, just that humans in general are poor at doing 8 hour shifts looking out windows.
*Note I am not questioning the dedication of the tower occupants, just that humans in general are poor at doing 8 hour shifts looking out windows.
I’m thinking there’s going to be more starting than extinguishing this coming week with 4th of july fireworks in the hands of morons who still set them off during drought conditions.
like this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Dorado_Fire ?
BTW I do not understand gender reveal parties. Where's the fun in that, just wait until sproglet emerges? Maybe I'm just too last millenia?
BTW I do not understand gender reveal parties. Where's the fun in that, just wait until sproglet emerges? Maybe I'm just too last millenia?