Is California Going Up in Flames?
California used to be the Golden State. Now the Blackout State might be more accurate, as the fear of wildfires forces public utilities to periodically power down. But wildfires have always been part of California’s history, so what’s changed? Radio talk show host John Kobylt’s answer to this burning question might surprise you.
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Script:
California—the Golden State.
Home to Hollywood…Silicon Valley…Napa Valley.
Glitz…Glamour…and now…blackouts.
In 2019, California became the first state ever to intentionally deny electricity to its own citizens. No power for your home, your Tesla, your cell phone or, maybe, your oxygen tank.
This is California we’re talking about—not some impoverished third-world country. California.
If it were a sovereign nation, it would be the fifth-largest economy in the world—ahead of the UK and France! But in the hot, dry months of late summer and early fall, it can no longer provide electricity to its own citizens. It has to shut down its aging power lines or risk starting another catastrophic fire.
In 2018, the town of Paradise burned to the ground. Over 10,000 homes were destroyed; 85 people died. In 2017, the Redwood fire killed nine people.
California has always had wildfires. But now the fire threat is worse than ever. Why?
For the answer, we should look to one of the state’s leading citizens—Leonardo Di Caprio: “The reason these wildfires have worsened is because of climate change.” Case closed? Well, not quite.
But Leo isn’t wrong. Climate change has made the problem worse. He’s just not right in the way he thinks he is.
Let’s get into it.
Long before “global warming” became “climate change,” Californians had to deal with fires. The hot, bone-dry summer and fall winds, thick forests, and dense brush that cover good portions of the state made sure of that.
As the state’s population grew, the citizens, always aware of fire risk, took steps to mitigate that risk—sometimes intentionally, sometimes not. First, there were large-scale logging operations. These helped thin the forest. Then there were “controlled burns”—fires purposely set to clear areas of brush in fire zones which were then quickly extinguished.
As the influence of the environmental movement grew more pronounced at the end of the last century and into this one, the state’s policy changed. First, new regulations sharply curtailed logging operations. Cutting down trees for lumber was depicted as almost an act of cruelty. Even clearing dead trees was frowned upon.
Controlled burns were viewed the same way. It was much better, the environmentalists contended, to let nature do its thing. And, as housing became more expensive in the big cities, developers started to build homes further from metropolitan areas and closer to the wilderness.
Parallel to this was the state’s green energy mandate. Governor Jerry Brown declared that California would be powered entirely by renewable energy—mostly wind and solar—by 2045. Tremendous pressure was put on Pacific Gas and Electric, the state’s largest energy company, to get started on this project.
Here’s where Leo gets it right, if unintentionally.
The green energy mandate turned the power company’s attention and resources away from the power grid and to wind and solar. How did this lead to new and deadlier fires? Let’s put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Wildfires can be started in all sorts of ways: lightning strikes, campfires not properly put out, a cigarette carelessly tossed away or, sometimes, straight-up arson. But the worst culprit of all is power lines. In 2018, fully half of California’s wildfires were started by power lines or related electrical problems. It’s not hard to figure out why: California’s power grid is ancient. Most of its towers were built before 1950. Some of the lines are so old they qualify for the National Registry of Historic Places. The lines that are failing and sparking fires? No surprise—the old ones.
For the complete script visit https://www.prageru.com/video/is-california-going-up-in-flames
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This is somewhat unrelated to the topic of the video, but something I've noticed with the trend in poor air quality in California as well as other states.
It was just last year or the year before–I wish I remember correctly that coastal cities in California had the worst air quality in the world. The cause of this atrocious air quality was wildfires. Wildfires are capable of causing the worst air quality that can be seen, which I think is proof that wildfires put more CO2 into the atmosphere than human activities.
For California, one of the best things that can be done to mitigate air pollution and CO2 emissions is not to turn to green energy sources, but to manage the forests and brush with the intent to reduce wildfires.
3:33 CA ancient grip causes half fires, green focus neglected it
The political process was changed in California to assure that democrats are elected to statewide public office. Since democrats are idiots, in stands to reason that the management of that state would suffer. I could care less about the problems that exist there, since the people who live there brought it on themselves.
I feel so bad for Californians that they have to put up with this nonsense. Seriously, while I can understand wanting green energy, shouldn't the California state government care enough for their citizens to pursue the more pressing issues? After all, if they had brought their power lines into the twenty first century first, they wouldn't have to worry about wildfires and lack of energy. This is worrisome because those wildfires cause more damage than fossil fuel does. I hope Californians stay strong and rise up to fix this issue before it gets any worse.
Bull it isn't going broke it's turning gray ashen gray, and there's a good chance a lot of it's people's body's will be doing the same
Lol! I was born and raised in california. Thank you GID for pointing and taking me to Texas! GOD bless Texas!
California is in flames, both literally and figuratively, all because of bad democrat policy.
Well, hello? California is in flames because it is the gate to hell
Nice video but where’s the solutions? For those of us that live in California, this is serious.
Flash forward a year later and the morons in charge are starting to blame "gaming PCs" for their energy problems. Smh.
My favorite part about all this is China building 1000 coal fire plants, India 700 & Japan 40. Of course they say they will reduce in 30-40 years l. By that time America If keep heating in this direction this will fast will most likely be a failed state .
Thank you for an excellent presentation of just one example of how misguided policies are wrecking California. Seems everything the left/liberals touch or try to fix becomes a mess.
All you have to do is visit one of our major cities. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and disgusted with problems they only made worse:
☆ Street violence
☆ Illegal immigration
☆ Sex trafficking
☆ Drug use
☆ Homelessness
☆ Under performing public schools
☆ Growing unemployment
☆ Companies leaving the state
☆ Ongoing pressure on the middle class; taxation to fund a never ending wish list of liberal/left pet projects that usually fail.
As a result a growing number are leaving. I'm almost 65, and not sure if I can afford to live here anymore.
Q: Do you know what socialist used before candles?
A: Light bulbs.
Ah yes to stop wild fires, get rid of the forest
_ “That’s what happens when progressives run the country”
Famous last words.
Those fires are man-made who are you kidding. You see how the trees are not even touched but the houses are burnt up in flames and the cars overturned and all that. bulshit
An insightful and edifying video – thank you for your great work……..
CALIFORNIA'S BEEN A HUUGE DUMPSTER FIRE FOR OVER A DECADE NOW! Even all the homeless pissing on it can't put it out..
🙄
I almost died in the creek fire. I was camping 50-60 miles away when we evacuated. And the reason it happened in the first place was because some genius built a transformer power machine next to a propane storage tank. To put it simply, the transformer lit up and blew up the propane tank.
Leftists: Nothing to see here.
Yea but it happens once to Texas and the Republicans are evil ones
My Dad subscribed me to National Geographic. Back in the 1980's they claimed that all of the oil reserves were known. Wrong! Don't try to convince me. Just tell me the facts. I can decide….
We have the same issues here in Australia with greenies
The CZU complex fire that displaced me from my home was caused by a freak dry lightening storm that woke me up in the middle of the night because the winds were so loud. It caused 3 of the fires in the bay, and an additional one was due to arson. The power only goes out in high wind forested areas, remote places. Idk what you wanna do with that info, but try and hold two things in tandem; mishandling by government but also increase in severe storms and high temperatures
Is anyone even shocked that progressives are making things worse with their ignorance again?
Cough cough… Texas Cough cough
How nicely this video has aged
This aged poorly
KOMMIFORNIA has been going down the toilet in flames for the last decade 🔥🔥🔥💩💩💩
Have you guys tried turning california off then back on again….🤷🏻
This is Texas NOT SOME IMPOVERISHED THIRD-WORLD COUNTRY. Where California is burning Texas is being frozen how ironic.
Who's here after Texas went up in flames too?
Despite all the public funds directed toward infrastructure & subsidizing pseudo-private utilities (PGE is not a public utility but an IOU Investor Owned, evades taxation among other undeserved indulgences, actually corporateered front & shell), even bailing them out? Absconding, misappropriating, hoarding, … Terrible that sacrosanct public institutions have been heisted by such parasites, politicronies, & kleptocrats for their own profit while exploiting & stealing from citizens, among systemic ethical & moral corruption. Use a legit search engine "Corporateering Book", then read it.
Some of this is inaccurate, diverts, & obfuscates, beside undeservedly slanders actual ethical Progressives in the classical sense (often as Conservatives are misunderstood & slandered when posers heist the name but are hypocrites in their aberrant ethics, aren't disciplined in their virtue, don't adhere to moral behavior & conduct), although does deservedly indict the #ClimateCon exploitation & corruption among individuals & institutions, corporateers & kleptocrats, complicit media shills, dubious fraud-ridden self-indulgent NGOs & profiteers, fronts, shells, & scams obscured by seemingly benign labels & brands, … PlantYourChange another deceptive fraud-ridden profiteering scam, employs misinforming propaganda, unrelated media, & unsubstantiated actions, absconds personal & financial information, without preventing or alleviating but actually indulging environmental damage & community harm. PlantYourChange is a deceptive fraud-ridden profiteering scam; corporateered front & shell related with Make Earth Green Again, LLC, wholly-owned subsidiary of Aspiration Financial, LLC, "Aspiration" Partners, Inc. Please remove this entire scam & channel from YouTube & related media, warn viewers, & report to DoJ.
If you know the supposed symptoms characterizing the aberrant conditions, then resolve them? Beside misunderstanding true Progressivism of the past, there are videos still rife with mistakes, myths, & oversights, especially CA's dubious GDP (like TX, TN, et al) since reliant upon Federal services, subsidies, & sources of fiat-financed dole, often misappropriated, heisted, & never provided to those intended (including this military retiree, abused, injured, & force onto the street while critically injured in San Diego, CA, nearly all personal property stolen by conniving thieves complicit with exploitation by systemic corruption among kleptocrats & parasites, dubious NGOs, profiteers, fronts, shells, & scams, …); worse with supposed environmental causes that are rife with exploitation, hypocrisy, malfeasance, & kleptocracy, exploiting Federal lands, mitigation, offsets, credits, emission trading scams, … Indeed, among the problems involve the Federal reps & cronies indulging the specific people among the states, counties, & cities beside the parasitic corporateered NGOs & profiteers while apathy, cowardice, & indulgence by potentially good citizens allow the aberrant conditions, disparities, abuses, & injustice to persist & exacerbate. Need explicit exposure, condemnation, & accountability; reveal the actual symptoms & actors amid prevalent malfeasance, kleptocracy, individual & institutional ethical & moral corruption, parasitic exploitation, systematic injustice without personal accountability especially for those toxic symptoms mentioned along with not treating & compensating injury, beside forsaking universal medical
services or appropriate institutional mental health treatment while indulging pharmaceuticals for pushing harmful psychotropic drugs. Among the paramount toxic symptoms persistently promoted & indulged to exacerbate aberrant conditions while complicit media obfuscates, diverts, suppresses, & selective exposure inherent with misinforming propaganda. Over three decades ago, preceding the Treasury raid & heist for perpetual fiat among other malfeasance without accountability (along with promoting & exploiting perpetual constructed crises, conniving scams, intentional undeserved socio-econ disparities, …), consider the Reagan era promoting apathy while condemning good governance & citizen oversight, so already bad people
provided ill-gotten opportunity, exploited vulnerabilities & susceptible people … I've enough evidence & experience for volumes beside provided for indictments, so this introduction should motivate you toward applying critical thought upon any information source, despite their perceived credibility since potential or inherent bias & conflicts are among the obfuscated issues, often not indicated, or readily obvious.
The subsidies provided for housing allowances while on active duty are, in part, promoting the distortions & disparities. Beside that, the funds meant for retirees & veterans are heisted by systemic corruption among kleptocrats & corporateered fraud-ridden self-serving NGOs, profiteers, commissions, foundations, agencies, whatever label or brand they use but all parasites &
thieves. Apathy such as running away & relocating like you did won't resolve the aberrant conditions, protect anybody, or impose accountability upon those causing & committing abuse, harm, & violations. Much hypocrisy, even cowardice & indulgence, among military, retirees, & veterans that don't confront the domestic abuse, harm, oppression, injury, & injustice or protect people when informed & aware of them enduring such. Among reasons I don't trust DoD, USN, et al, that fail exemplifying their purported values or honoring their oath. How about involvement, participation, protection, & accountability instead of apathy & indulgence? Bad actors take advantage of your vulnerabilities & there are many susceptible.
Why are many people apathetic, indulgent, & willingly embracing these disparities, abuses, & violations, especially after they are aware & exposed, or have experienced such but not provided appropriate protection & support? Much parasitic exploitation, malfeasance, kleptocracy, repression & oppression, injustice, individual & institutional ethical & moral corruption promoting & exploiting socio-economic disparity, price distortions, spitefully blatantly violating protections & egalitarian rule of law among various self-serving complexes, educational, medical or health can't, dubious corporateered parastic self-indulgent NGOs, profiteers, agencies, fronts, shells, shills, schemes, & scams, … hoarding endowments & overfilling coffers, diverting into market scams & financial schemes (also bailed-out, propped-up, subsidized, …). ScAmerika is an economic illusion & repulsive aberration rife with corruption, malfeasance, violations, disparity, distortion, … None should exist & none deserve such inordinate indulgence much less benefit by systematic injustice, kleptocracy, abuse, harm, injury, bigotry, discrimination, promoting, imposing, & exploiting destitute poverty & disparity upon innocent people (such as this USN retiree). Ethically just & moral people must resolve their apathy & hypocrisy, become courageous to expose, condemn, confront, remove & impose accountability upon the bad actors & awful people indulged by the corruption, ultimately resolving the aberrant conditions. You have the endowed inalienable right & will to change the human-created constitutional disparities that are exploited for such undeserved indulgences, violations, & injustice. Why aren't you involved, taking action, controlling your own fate, & making history?
Good moral citizens must courageously act & persevere to expose, confront, condemn, & impose accountability to resolve aberrant conditions, oppression, corruption, malfeasance, kleptocracy, … Tabula Rasa & Citizens Jubilee. Decades ago, already bad people took advantage of ignorance & apathy to become absolutely evil, exploiting vulnerabilities to deconstruct society, forsake protections, abscond rule of law for self-indulgence & imposing undeserved socio-economic disparity, raiding & heisting respective Treasuries, amid prevalent individual & institutional ethical & moral corruption, malfeasance, kleptocracy, systematic injustice, parasitic exploitation, … By now, you must be aware so it's your civic duty, paramount obligation, & moral prerogative in the essential endeavor to restore your institutions, retain your Treasuries, reconstruct egalitarian rule of law, share values, resolve disparities so all are protected, supported, provided ethically just, moral, & virtuous leadership.
They need Enron back!!
It's 5 month ago yet calif voter still vote for DNC so yea it their own fault.
3:39
You forgot the "It'S a BoY!" Way
“California, not some impoverished third word country?” Why did you just say the same thing twice in a row?
Speaking as a former Californian I can attest to the question is California going up in flames? Any answer is yes! There is no getting around it. And thanks to governor newsom's covid restrictions and shutdowns it's collapse has accelerated. Even in my former hometown which was one of the better places in California is collapsing thanks to the Democrats. No one can deny that it is the fault of the Democrats because they are and have been the sole controlling influence in California for 30 years if not longer
https://youtu.be/kNsQQQu1YjU
A overview of the old costs would be good
Dumb question. Nobody knows exactly when California will go up in flames.
This… this doesn't make any sense.
The golden (shower) state? XD
My coworker’s ex boyfriend used to work in the logging business. She would go with him sometimes to the logging sites. She and I both agree that California is burning because there is no clearing of dead trees and brush and that forest management in this state is next to nothing. This state has always had controlled burnings to benefit the ecosystem. Even native Americans here knew that controlled burnings benefitted California. When the local government banned that, it has turned the state into a tinder box.