The sky is overcast with smoke

Yes here in Portland Oregon it was supposed to be sunny and hot but smoke from Oregon's multiple wildfires has blocked out the sun. The sky is completely overcast but the clouds are brownish in color because they're not clouds, they're smoke.

The only positive is that it's kept the temperature below 90. This feels like a taste of the future, as the planet gets hotter the summer wildfires will be more intense and forests will be danger zones.

Fires, plague, riots and looting, hurricanes, floods and a President who fiddles while Rome burns. What's next, earthquakes and locusts? And it scares me to think what could happen after the election, whoever wins. Hope we don't see fighting in the streets but be prepared for it.

 

I've seen some footage from the area with that weird monochromatic sky - good luck.

 

Today the smoke is low-lying, giving us a smoky fog. The outdoors smells like a campfire. I don't normally wear my mask outside but I'm wearing it today.

And Trump, the man who has cut back on environmental regulations, has admitted he knew all along the coronavirus was especially dangerous but decided to let it ride rather than take immediate precautions to slow it down. I wonder if that will convince any of his supporters to switch sides.

 

Don't count on it...

 

Maybe liberals need to learn how to manage their forests..

 

Like other issues, the right wing is incapable of discussing complex problems. My background in the issue of forest management includes more than 35 years of working in analytical positions with The US Forest Service and a bachelors and masters degree in forestry. Yesterday I saw that the average number of acres burned in the US was closing in on 5 million acres per year. In the 1980’s it was about 2 million acres per year. Why the change?
First of all, it has nothing to do with liberals learning how to manage forests. Budgets for land management agencies have been shrinking and under attack by”conservatives” since RR.
1. When I was working in the field there was a growing concern in the agency about growing development in the wild land interface and in areas that could not be protected. That has happened....more people, more fires in areas that can not be defended. And zoning in rural area has gotten a bad rap for being “socialist”.
2. And the big reason is climate change. In spite of the learned ignorance of Trump and Republicans, the climate is changing and created more and more days conducive to wild land fires. This is not a guess or conspiracy......It is documented across the US and the World by time series climate data.
So there are more fires burning more acres with more structures lost as time goes on. Hardly an unexpected trend. Picking up slash, harvesting more trees are not going th change the trend. I have been out of active employment for many years, but nothing has contradicted my experiences in this issue.

 

When I saw all the city scape images from the fires, I immediately thought I was watching scenes from the movie Bladerunner 2049

Terrible loss of life and resources from these fires


California Sept 2020


Bladerunner 2049

 

Managing forests is EVERYONE's job.....and the West is just so dry vs East. It's not time to blame a party, it's Mother Nature doing her thing. How about some rain dancing folks.

Smoky skies have hit us here at the beach in Santa Monica. Hearing the military is being called in and others from outside the U.S.

 

The first step, jackass, is to remove Trump from office and elect a President who will get tough enforcing environmental laws.

 

Here's Portland.

 

I don't even want know how many animals, birds n reptiles that perished.

Virus Guru will probably post the fatality statistics just to upset me

 

We can't even see the sun.
What saved us was it' never got to 70 degrees today.
The earth is turning into the same scenery as the moon.

 

Where you at lapush?

Anyway I've closed all my storm windows to keep the smell of smoke out and I wear my mask outdoors. Sinuses are still getting a little irritated. Good news is that it's cooling off, the winds have died down and rain is forecast for Monday night thru Tuesday, so hopefully the fires will be brought under control soon. I'm looking forward to things getting back to normal so I can bitch about the rain once again.

 

It's been kind of hazy here in Ventura County. Overcast, but haze too. It's a mix of clouds and smoke, and it has me wondering about air quality/particulate matter.