On California Fires

            It is impossible to ignore the images of homes ablaze in all those horrendous California fires.  We are now looking at vast swaths of California real estate that have become virtually uninhabitable—why would you want to build a house in one of those fire-prone areas? Chances are you wouldn’t be able to buy fire insurance. Insurers have had to pay out so many claims in the last couple of years that they no longer write new policies in those areas; in fact, many are cancelling existing policies. Not a good job market for insurance agents. Or real estate agents for that matter.

            What is responsible for all those fires anyway? There has been a lot of finger-pointing going on California. It’s climate change, say radical environmentalists, because it is responsible for the high winds and severe droughts. But don’t environmentalists themselves bear some responsibility for California’s failed forest management strategies regarding such matters as fire breaks and clearing of underbrush? When high winds cause a tree to fall on a power line and start a fire, shouldn’t we be asking why a tree was growing so close to the power line in the first place?