#infernos

#infernos

"Gambling on the weather has become an institution throughout a great part of the United States." This sentiment from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1915 highlights the long-standing tradition of weather betting in American culture.

"They didn't even try to fly away. They just feebly made noise," a woman told the Santa Barbara Independent on Saturday after spotting over two dozen dead or dying cormorants near Goleta Beach. "A few were on their stomachs, wings spread [and] gasping for breath.... Heartbreaking."

When lives are assigned a higher dollar value, stricter pollution standards tend to clear the 'economic efficiency' sniff test, resulting in cleaner air. But that improved air quality comes at the expense of America's industrial industries, which have to invest in pricey systems to reduce the amount of these pollutants they spew down to acceptable levels.

Air pollution is the second-largest risk factor for early death globally. Traditionally, our response has focused on reducing the levels of pollution people breathe, but this is only part of the story.

"Nobody is asking for this. None of the farm groups want this. No one in conservation wants this. Nobody." Robert Bonnie, former Forest Service undersecretary, highlights widespread opposition to the reorganization.

"What's the consequences if we allow 800 residents to be in a severe fire with no evacuation routes? We're being asked to choose between two really bad options."

The patchwork efforts to identify and safely remove contamination left by the 2025 Eaton and Palisades fires has been akin to the Wild West. Experts have given conflicting guidance on best practices. Shortly after the fires, the federal government suddenly refused to adhere to California's decades-old post-fire soil-testing policy; California later considered following suit. Meanwhile, insurance companies have resisted remediation practices widely recommended by scientists for still-standing homes.

One year ago, Nancy Ward, then the director of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), petitioned the Federal Emergency Management Agency to spearhead the cleanup of toxic ash and fire debris cloaking more than 12,000 homes across Los Angeles County. Although Ward's decision ensured the federal government would assume the bulk of disaster costs, it came with a major trade off.

"Fire-hardened homes are the future of the state of California," said El Dorado County Supervisor George Turnboo.

The question of how to protect fish and the ecological health of rivers that feed California's largest estuary is generating heated debate in a series of hearings in Sacramento, as state officials try to gain support for a plan that has been years in the making. "I am passionate that this is the pathway to recover fish," said state Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot. "This is the paradigm we need: collaborative, adaptive management versus conflict and litigation."