FARRELL: Evidence Of Criminal Human Activity Causing Wildfires
From Chris Farrell’s Op-Ed for The Daily Caller:
As wildfires rip through the Pacific states, environmentalists and liberal politicians are blaming man-caused global warming. But the particular severity of this year’s fires may be traced to a different cause: arson.
There’s evidence of criminal human activity causing forest fires. Over a dozen people have been charged recently with setting western wildfires. Domingo Lopez Jr. may be the champion firebug. He started a brush fire along I-205 in Oregon using a Molotov Cocktail, was arrested, booked and later released. Then Lopez proceeded to start six more small fires in the next twelve hours before being apprehended again. Another alleged arsonist, BLM activist Jeffrey Acord, livestreamed the fire on Facebook as police arrived, then claimed to be calling the incident in.
Wildfires occur naturally on the West Coast and have been part of the ecosystem for millennia. An average 6.8 million acres burned annually in U.S. from wildfires from 2010 to 2019, mostly in the West. This is more than double the 3.0 million per year that burned in the 1980s, and environmentalists attribute the increase to global warming.
Another possible cause: horrific forestry management policy. In the 1930s, the average acres burned yearly was 39.1 million, over five times higher than today. Global warming cannot explain this shift, but radical changes in land management can. In the 20th century fire minimization was a priority, and steps were taken to safeguard forests and the homes that were increasingly being built in fire-prone areas. This included clearing brush, culling old trees, creating fire breaks and other prudent preventive measures.
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