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Los Angeles Wildfire Disaster: A Failure of Leadership

January 11, 2025 / 04:55

This episode covers California's wildfire management, legislative failures, and the impact of climate change on extreme weather events. Key discussions include the frequency of outlier weather events, the reduction of timber harvesting, and the negligence in managing dead trees.

The host criticizes the response to recent wildfires, referencing a 2018 fire in Southern California as a warning sign that was ignored. They emphasize that the data on increasing wildfire risks was available and should have prompted action.

Legislative failures are highlighted, with multiple bills aimed at wildfire prevention being rejected or vetoed by the California legislature and Governor Newsom. The host points out that these legislative decisions contributed to the severity of the current wildfire situation.

The episode also discusses the financial misallocation of government funds, questioning the spending on homelessness and illegal immigration instead of fire prevention measures. The host suggests that reappropriating these funds could have mitigated the damage from the fires.

Overall, the conversation underscores a sense of urgency and frustration regarding California's preparedness for wildfires and the need for proactive measures.

TL;DR

California's wildfire crisis stems from legislative failures and climate change, with funds misallocated away from prevention efforts.

Video

00:00:00
I'm not very sympathetic to the there
00:00:03
were 100 mph winds not because it's not
00:00:06
true but there's been enough modeling
00:00:10
that we know that these kinds of outlier
00:00:13
weather events are happening in greater
00:00:16
and greater frequency remember that
00:00:18
crazy apocalyptic video of that exact
00:00:21
same part of Southern California in
00:00:25
2018 burning to the ground can we just
00:00:29
look at that all of us collectively
00:00:31
because that was 6 years ago this is not
00:00:35
like it was a distant memory from a
00:00:38
hundred years ago this idea that we were
00:00:40
just Lolly gagging around and got caught
00:00:42
off guard by 100 m hour winds to me is
00:00:45
completely not an acceptable
00:00:47
answer we knew in 2018 that these things
00:00:50
could happen we knew across the rest of
00:00:52
the United States that these outlier
00:00:54
weather events were happening in greater
00:00:56
and greater
00:00:57
frequency if you weren't sure you saw
00:01:00
most of the insurance companies try to
00:01:02
dump Southern California homes fire
00:01:04
coverage 3 months before this event
00:01:07
happened so all this data was in the
00:01:09
realm of the
00:01:11
knowable and then when you doubleclick
00:01:14
and you get into a little bit more of
00:01:15
the details there's a level of
00:01:18
incompetence bordering on criminal
00:01:20
negligence here that we need to get to
00:01:22
the bottom of so I'll just give you a
00:01:24
couple of facts in the
00:01:27
1950s the average amount of Timber so
00:01:30
wood that was harvested in California
00:01:33
was around 6 billion board feet per
00:01:36
year in the intervening 70 years that
00:01:39
shrank to about 1.5 billion board feet
00:01:43
and so you'd say okay well that's a 75%
00:01:46
reduction we must be making a very
00:01:49
explicit stance on conservation it turns
00:01:52
out that that's not entirely true
00:01:53
because what it left behind was nearly
00:01:58
163 Million Dead trees dead like gone
00:02:03
and so you would say well those things
00:02:05
should have been removed and the problem
00:02:08
is that then there's this California
00:02:10
Environmental Quality act squa hopefully
00:02:13
I'm pronouncing this right and a whole
00:02:15
bunch of these other regulatory policies
00:02:18
that limited the ability of local
00:02:19
governments and fire management to clear
00:02:22
these dead trees and
00:02:24
vegetation and I think that that's a
00:02:26
really big deal and when you double
00:02:28
click on that here's where you find the
00:02:30
real heads scratcher
00:02:33
okay multiple bills AB 2330 ab1
00:02:37
1951 AB
00:02:40
2639 all rejected by the Democrat
00:02:43
controlled legislature or worse vetoed
00:02:45
by Governor Nome that would have
00:02:48
Exempted these Wildfire prevention
00:02:50
projects from squa and other pering
00:02:53
issues then there were other bills to
00:02:56
try to minimize the risk of fires by
00:02:57
burying power lines underground at SB
00:03:00
103 as an example went nowhere didn't
00:03:04
even get to the governor's desk so I'm
00:03:07
just a little bit at a loss explain
00:03:10
these two bodies of data one is
00:03:14
everybody can see that these events are
00:03:16
happening Southern California lived
00:03:18
through this exact type of moment just
00:03:21
six years
00:03:23
ago all the bills that are meant to
00:03:25
prevent this are blocked or
00:03:28
vetoed this is the ultimate expression
00:03:31
of negligence and incompetence how did
00:03:34
these fires start yeah how did they grow
00:03:37
out of control and again I think that
00:03:40
these winds didn't come out of nowhere
00:03:42
in the sense that they caught everybody
00:03:44
off guard this has happened before that
00:03:47
area has gone through this exact moment
00:03:50
yes there were laws that were proposed
00:03:53
they were Ved okay so that even if you
00:03:56
could have controlled it then you see
00:03:59
certain developers like Rick Caruso who
00:04:01
were able to protect the buildings that
00:04:04
he was responsible for because he took
00:04:07
proactive and protective measures could
00:04:09
those proactive and protective measures
00:04:11
not been taken more broadly through LA
00:04:13
county of course they could have why
00:04:16
were they not and here what we're seeing
00:04:18
on the screen is Rick Russo's Village
00:04:21
let me ask a very specific question
00:04:23
Pacific much money and we know the
00:04:25
answer to this how much money did the
00:04:28
government of California spend
00:04:30
poorly as it turns out on homelessness
00:04:33
it was about $21 billion and illegal
00:04:36
immigrants I don't know what the final
00:04:38
numberers there but I suspect in the
00:04:39
tens of billions if you think if you
00:04:41
reappropriated those dollars to these
00:04:43
kinds of protective mechanisms in these
00:04:45
areas what would the outcome have been
00:04:47
maybe there still would have been a fire
00:04:49
maybe there would have been damage but
00:04:51
it's hard for me to believe it would
00:04:52
have been as bad as it is right now

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Episode Highlights

  • California's Wildfire Crisis
    A discussion on the increasing frequency of outlier weather events and the state's response.
    “We knew in 2018 that these things could happen.”
    @ 00m 47s
    January 11, 2025
  • Negligence in Fire Management
    Exploring the incompetence in managing wildfire risks and the rejection of preventive bills.
    “This is the ultimate expression of negligence and incompetence.”
    @ 03m 31s
    January 11, 2025
  • Misallocation of Funds
    Questioning California's spending on homelessness versus wildfire prevention measures.
    “How much money did the government of California spend poorly?”
    @ 04m 28s
    January 11, 2025

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Weather Events00:13
  • Wildfire Prevention02:50
  • Government Spending04:33

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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