Hacker News Reader

Comment by WheelsAtLarge | Hacker News Reader

As much as I want to say that Farhad is wrong, I can't. He is right. We can't continue to live the way we have. We are seeing the results of kicking the can, also known as the fix, down the road. We hope that things will get fixed eventually but not now. We feel that somehow it will be easier to fix by the next generation. Unfortunately, it only gets harder. We'll just have to suffer more when the fix is finally made.

View on HN

Do we even agree what the fix is?

A lot of tree trimming and removal. Lots of heavy equipment. Firebreaks a mile wide. More full-time Cal Fire people and equipment. Recycled 747s as water tankers (there's already one.) More underground power lines. Not really that hard.

Maybe drone fire surveillance and rapid response.

No, the solution is returning to the natural regular burns that are part of the ecosystem in California. Zero tolerance fire-fighting is the main issue at hand, as it builds up kindling to infernos.

And controlled burns. The land WILL burn - why would we NOT let it burn at a time of our choosing, such as the middle of the rainy season when we have the best control over it?

Those burns release a lot of pollution and CO2. I've always wondered if it was possible to collect the brush and dry plants and burn them more usefully for energy.

Underground power lines

Fixes which have winners and losers become lost in electoral arithmetic. An example of this struck me some years ago when a friend who lived in Louden County (W. Virginia) said they were subject to frequent power outages which caused catastrophic loss of the goods in the freezer, but the local authority kept losing the vote for increased local taxes which would pay for fixes to the electricity distribution issues: People don't want to socialise the costs, at personal loss of disposable income.

I predict that no measure of substance which demands people pay more to socialize fixes will get up without a fight. I also predict that rational simple fixes applied in other economies (I am thinking of europe mainly) simply won't be considered, because "socialism"

True, we seem to want everything but aren't willing to pay for it.

This situation is similar to the country going to war. Where the political leaders are the ones that must convince the population that we must act or lose the war and our way of life. It really does come down to leadership.

There is no county Louden in West Virginia. There is a Loudoun County Virginia. It was largely rural until recently. It is now a suburb of Washington DC. Part of Dulles Airport was built in Loudoun County.

Thanks for the correction. I'm an Australian infrequent visitor to D.C.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com