XPost: hawaii.politics, alt.politics.liberalism, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: nospam@ix.netcom.com   
      
   President Joe Biden can’t be bothered to disrupt his beach vacation to   
   even comment on, let alone visit, the most deadly wildfires in over 100   
   years, but that didn’t stop other Democrats from blaming the carnage in   
   Maui on climate change.   
      
   "Heartbreaking fires in Hawaii! Scientists are clear that climate chaos   
   wreaking havoc on ecosystems everywhere is the new norm," Sen. Jeff   
   Merkley (D-OR) posted. "We need to take action immediately or else it will   
   get even worse."   
      
   "The wildfires raging across Hawaii are a devastating view of our planet   
   as we fail to adequately address the climate crisis," Sen. Dick Durbin (D-   
   IL) added. And, of course, Hawaii’s own Mazie Hirono had to join in, “I   
   think that we very much need to acknowledge that climate change is upon   
   us.”   
      
   Problem is, climate change isn’t to blame for the fires that destroyed the   
   town of Lahaina. Failure to adequately manage invasive species is. And by   
   trying to exploit this tragedy to push their climate change agenda,   
   Democrats are making it harder to get the policy changes needed to   
   actually reduce the chances that a tragedy like this will happen again.   
      
   For decades, Hawaii was dominated by large plantations of sugar cane and   
   pineapple. As global trade made those enterprises less profitable, land   
   that had once been cleared for agriculture has now been overtaken by   
   foreign species of grass that grow fast, suck up a lot of water, and are   
   much more flammable than native species.   
      
   "Hawai'i's fire problem is due to the vast areas of unmanaged, nonnative   
   grasslands from decades of declining agriculture,” University of Hawaii at   
   Manoa professor Clay Trauernicht said. "These savannas now cover about a   
   million acres across the main Hawaiian Islands, mostly the legacy of land   
   clearing for plantation agriculture and ranching in the late 1800s/early   
   1900s.”   
      
   A 2014 report found that the average area burned in Hawaii today was 400%   
   higher than just 100 years ago, with more and more being burned every   
   decade. After large brush fires destroyed many homes in 2018 and 2019, a   
   Maui County report recommended an “aggressive plan to replace” flammable   
   nonnative grass species, but it does not appear that recommendation was   
   carried out.   
      
   The Democrats' continued focus on climate policy over proper land   
   management is not just a threat to Hawaii, but to the mainland too. The   
   U.S. Forest Service has a backlog of more than 80 million acres of land   
   that is filled with dead and dying diseased trees that should have been   
   harvested years ago. The Bureau of Land Management has another 50 million   
   acres in need of upkeep.   
      
   For thousands of years Native Americans used fires to shape wildlife for   
   their own purposes. Only after Europeans settled the West did “nature”   
   become a sacred resource that had to be kept pristine. If humans don’t   
   actively manage the vegetation that grows near our communities, nature   
   eventually will. But it will be done in a much more fiery and destructive   
   manner than if we had done it ourselves.   
      
   https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/editorials/democrats-climate-   
   distraction-wont-stop-hawaii-wildfires   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)