The state of California chooses to burn it down.” Or as Kim Greene, the mayor of Weed, lamented during the first of two major wildfires to hit Siskiyou County this year: “You can log it, you can graze it, or you can burn it down. Stumps where trees once provided shade from the sun. Soil so contaminated that millions of dollars in environmental restoration will be needed. Streets of empty lots where homes and businesses once stood. But what it left behind is undisputed fact. Why the Dixie fire was able to enter Greenville at all, tucked away in the Indian Valley about 100 miles northwest of Lake Tahoe, has become the stuff of conspiracy theories. In the intervening months, the flames chewed through close to 1 million acres across five counties, invading forests that hadn’t seen fire in ages as well as crossing the footprints of other recent wildfires. An armada of firefighters took until October to fully contain it. It started in July of last year, when a tree fell onto a Pacific Gas & Electric distribution line. Part 4: Lead with science, not sentiment.Part 3: Raising tempers along with temperatures.Part 2: Do we keep indulging climate change skeptics?. ![]() In a not-so-distant future ravaged by climate change, many of Northern California’s rural towns wiped out by wildfires might not get rebuilt at all. Soon, living in rural Northern California won’t be as safe, as sustainable or even as beautiful as it once was. Doing so is simply costing too many lives and too much money, and wasting too much time. It’s a belief so widespread, so divorced from the terrifying reality of climate change, that the rest of us in California can’t keep ignoring it. Instead, they look at it as just one more challenge to overcome, like spotty cellphone service and far-off grocery stores and hospitals. But maddeningly, the people who love living in these rural wildlands don’t see it that way. Greenville, which burned down in last year’s Dixie fire, should serve as a potent reminder of this risk. Sure, Southern California is prone to its fair share of disasters, but it is in Northern California where catastrophic wildfires aren’t just likely but are certain to destroy remote small towns for decades to come. This is the part of the state where climate change has become a full-fledged existential threat. ![]() Even though it’s extraordinarily beautiful, with thick forests and pristine rivers, rural Northern California isn’t for everyone - nor should it be.
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