Jonathan Franzen: "That's why I'm more impatient than ever with the climate activists"
Photo: Slaven Vlasic / AFP
North of Santa Cruz, 40,000 hectares of forest burned in August.
My house was spared, but more than 1,000 others were destroyed.
As I walked along the coast and saw where the fire had almost come to the edge of the ocean, I wasn't as dejected as expected.
I was sad about the beautiful landscape, sad about the animals that lived in it, and sad about the people whose houses and farms had burned.
But the scenery didn't seem
unnatural to
me
.
Fire is part of the natural cycle, especially here in California.
Although the new, severe fires are partly due to climate change, they are also the result of other flawed human actions.
The result of a century of suppressive measures that fueled extremely hot fires.
And, more recently, the result of the trend to promote residential areas in areas that are naturally prone to fire.
The fires this year could also have two good effects.
First of all, there would be an enormous public investment in better fire protection: in controlled burning (...) that creates passages to contain the wildfire.
The second good consequence could be that house construction will be reduced in dangerous areas: By no longer insuring the houses in these areas - and by investing billions in urban housing construction.
People should live in the cities - and nature should be allowed to take its course.
In other words, there are practical and important steps we can take to adapt to global warming.
That's why I'm more impatient than ever with climate activists.
Your answer to the fires is to double your carbon emissions again.
Rather than addressing the immediate problem, they are demanding that we focus on complex energy infrastructure programs that will not be completed for many years (while
more and more land is being destroyed
each
fire season
) - and that global warming will eventually lead to the future at best slightly moderate.
Just looking at carbon emissions made sense 20 years ago.
Now it becomes increasingly irrelevant to the task at hand.
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