US News
More than 1,000 wildfires burn in northern California
Jun 26, 2008, 19:58 GMT
Large flames of the Walker Fire erupt along Walker Ridge near Lake County out side Clear Lake, California, 25 June 2008. EPA/PETER DASILVA
San Francisco - The normally blue skies of northern California were thick with smoke Thursday as more than 1,000 forest fires burned across the region.
One of the worst blazes was burning out of control near the renowned coastal beauty spot of Big Sur, having already burned 15 houses and threatening 500 more. It also threatened a historic library at the site, where famous author Henry Miller spent his final years.
The authorities in many areas warned of 'unhealthy' air quality, the San Francisco Chronicle reported under the headline Having a Bad Air Day, as smoke blanketed much of the vast state and was thick enough to mask the sun in many areas. Seniors and children were advised to stay indoors with windows closed to minimize breathing problems.
Many of the fires were triggered by a spate of weekend lightning strikes and meteorologists were calling for similar conditions for the end of this week.
An army of more than 11,000 firefighters backed by 48 water- dropping aircraft and with support from the neighbouring states of Oregon and Nevada were battling the flames. According to state authority Cal Fire the fires had burned more than 534 square kilometres.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visited affected areas in Big Sur and in the Sierra Mountains foothills on Wednesday and called in the National Guard to boost firefighting efforts.
He called on people not to buy fireworks for the traditional July 4 US Independence Day celebrations, as it was too dry and too dangerous to set them off.
Earlier this month, Schwarzenegger had declared a state of emergency in California because of the dangers related to the dry weather.
In the Mendocino region alone, more than 130 fires were burning, forcing hundreds from their homes, while in the Shasta Trinity forest more than 150 fires were burning.
Initial reports were of little damage to property.
Yet the fires are causing huge concern coming early in the season due to low rainfall over the winter and spring that left brush bone dry at least two months ahead of schedule.
California's worst fire months are usually in September and October, when hot dry inland winds blow across the south of the state. Last year more than 2,000 homes were destroyed by the late summer fires, causing more than 3 billion dollars in damage.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Well, it's nice to see that we now have a dyed-in-the-wool misanthrope to round out our friendly little population of posters.
I wonder what this might have to do with human population numbers:
afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gRI87Fyr-TpE6OBYfAcYxFKSXRJg
I have never actually seen it, but I have to think that lava might have a dramatic effect on water temperatures.
Oh, and by the way, Jenny. You really need to be making your posts in Mandarin, Urdu and Spanish. English and the European languages are about to go the way of the Dodo thanks to so many of us taking advice such as yours.
or no-awareness or no-hatness or whatever you call yourself these days, Mr. DL Granberry of Houston Texass. Grow up. Get a job. Get a life. Get lost. You are past boring, you little pissant.
Obviously, I did not do a good enough job. I'll try again.
RE:'global warming is really just overpopulation, that's all it is - the planet is trying to kill us now and I can't blame her'
Jenny is right about this. The 'The Planet' is trying to kill us. What Jenny does not seem to realize is that this is nothing new. The Planet has been trying to kill us for the whole of our existence. Even when we were little more than apes The Planet was trying to kill us, but this was not prejudicial treatment. The Planet tries its very best to kill every living thing both plant and animal. It always has and it always will. Let up in the struggle to survive for five minutes and The Plane WILL KILL YOU.
This way of thinking about the earth is erroneous in the extreme. It is NOT alive. It has no consciousness. It simply IS. This does not change the fact that Earth is a dangerous place to live. It has always been a dangerous place to live and will forever remain a dangerous place to live.
RE:'humans are too stupid to even know to stop having so many kids that we are destroying ourselves'
Well, let's see. Which countries are experiencing a decline in population. The UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, France, the EU, Japan and the US. The United States wold not be experiencing any population growth whatsoever were it not for the flood of immigrants coming in from Mexico and nations further south. In Europe, the population is going up because of an influx of immigrants, most of them Arab or Pakistani, who have as many babies as they can.
If Jenny were serious about her message she would be posting in Urdu, Mandarin, Spanish and Arabic, not English. It may well be that I am wrong about Jenny. She may not be a misanthrope. She may instead be a racist.
Notice, if you will boys and girls, that is the nations Jenny hates the most who have been following Jenny's advice. For reasons no one has been able to adequately explain, the birth rate of a nation fall as it industrializes and builds a more robust economy. Notice that it is the industrialized nations that Jenny blames for ''global warming'. It is we, of the industrialized world who Jenny says are responsible for 'global warming.'
Notice, if you will, that Jenny does not blame improved agriculture, or medical advances for even a smidgen of world population growth. Improved agriculture and medicine sound too kind don't they? Jenny does not want you to think about what she advocates.
What she champions is more disease; more children and elderly people dying from sleeping sickness, malaria, cholera, scarlet fever, impetigo, et cetera. Name a misery and Jenny is all for it because it would reduce the number of human beings on this planet. My goodness, Jenny must be a huge fan of war, but then perhaps war kills too many people too quickly. War fails to make people miserable enough before they die. She likely favors starvation and cholera to anything else. One must assume that she is more fond of AIDS than anything else in the world. AIDS, after all, kills people for engaging in the act of procreation. All hail the Gods of Jenny, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!
RE:'humans are the greatest threat to life'
To whose life, Jenny? Yours? Mine? Oh, the life of The Planet! I should have realized, shouldn't I? Jenny believes in the Theory of Intrinsic Worth. She labors under the false perception that a thing can have value without anything around to place a value on it. A worshiper of Kali, are you Jenny? You must be. Only a person who believes in a Deity of some kind could come up with something so perverted. Little wonder that the Indians have all but abandoned your precious Brahma. The results are too hideous to contemplate.
RE:'if you want to help then don't have kids or adopt'
Why not adopt, Jenny? The child is already alive and in this world. Why not adopt it? Because the chances of the child dying would be better if it were not adopted? Yes, that is exactly what your diseased little mind hopes for, isn't? Otherwise, what would it hurt to adopt an orphaned child, even by your sick standards?
Yes, I know. I bore you. Good! You deserve far worse. You deserve the fate you are wishing on others. I sincerely hope you get it.
or no-awareness or no-hatness or whatever you call yourself these days, Mr. DL Granberry of Houston Texass. Grow up. Get a job. Get a life. Get lost. You are past boring, you little pissant.
Jenny, you are Stupid! This is God's way of clearing our forests. This happened whether you and I are here or not. How can you stop lightening? Environmentalists are STUPID!!! How dare you think that you are great enough to destroy the World?? Nature is Nature! And Lightening has nothing to do with OVERCROWDING, you Numbskull!!
'humans are the greatest threat to life '
buh by..
page: 1
JennyJun 26th, 2008 - 20:42:29
global warming is really just overpopulation, that's all it is - the planet is trying to kill us now and I can't blame her
humans are too stupid to even know to stop having so many kids that we are destroying ourselves
humans are the greatest threat to life
please use birth control people - if you have more that 2 kids you are adding to overpopulation and global warming - zero is the best
if you want to help then don't have kids or adopt
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