You've heard that 'there is A story and then there is THE story.' The press loves to serve as the stenographer for Government, and serve that stuff up as "the" story. But actually, they've engineered the narrative so it's actually only "a" story.
Their headline:
Truth Be Told: No evidence of California water policies making wildfires worse
We'll assume--generously--that their editors are familiar with the English language and elementary logic. They know, therefore, that their headline is deceptive. Those policies did NOT 'make wildfires worse'; they could not have been much worse. But those policies prevented first responders from containing, mitigating, and extinguishing the fires. Big difference. One is A story, the other is THE story.
In sum: that's a "partial truth," and they know it.
Next, they attack Donald Trump. Since the "press" has been doing that for years, it's easy!
...President-elect Donald Trump blamed Gov. Gavin Newsom for keeping policies that limit the amount of freshwater able to flow from northern California to the parched southern part of the state.
"He wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish called a smelt," Trump posted on Truth Social. "Now the ultimate price is being paid."
Trump's claim about California depriving water where it's needed most, all to save a small fish known as Delta smelt, is not new....
More partial truth. No matter how much water could have been available if the smelt were sacrificed, the water problem was not the biggest policy problem in California. The State's notoriously horrible forest management policies were. The State deliberately left deadwood where it fell, producing millions of tons of tinder. Fires love tinder.
Further, the LAFD, with nearly unlimited budget funds, never purchased any "super scooper" planes with which they could drown fires with ocean water. Those have to come from Canada (!!!) (By the way, those salt-water dousings sorta contradict the flim-flam of the officials about 'not contaminating' water with salt water, no?)
It is reassuring to know that the "press" will rarely--if ever--tell you THE story. That way you can continue ignoring them. You didn't learn anything there, anyway.
1 comment:
Water plays a very small role in wildfire fighting. It's mostly done by creating fire breaks, whether with bulldozers, shovels and rakes, or even leaf blowers. (I would not have thought a leaf blower would be an effective firefighting tool until I started doing it, but it really does allow you to move a lot of dead material out of the way quickly.)
However, water is important for structure protection. The crew fighting the wildfire probably isn't using much water, but the engines detailed to keeping houses from burning down are likely to be standing by to hose houses down as the wildfire gets too close. Since the houses are what California mostly cares about, it's not a negligible consideration.
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