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11 votes
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Inside Boeing’s factory lapses that led to the Alaska Air blowout
16 votes -
An American archaeologist has died after the replica boat she was sailing in capsized in rough seas during an expedition from the Faroe Islands to Norway
15 votes -
‘I have lost everything’: Bangladesh floods strand 1.24 million families. Bangladeshis claim Indian dam water release made it more severe.
21 votes -
A dam collapses in eastern Sudan after heavy rainfall and local media report dozens missing
19 votes -
While southern Europe swelters, Denmark's mild temperatures and extended daylight hours are providing the perfect summer escape for many
8 votes -
Buy burned land
Tis fire season again here in North America and Europe. From my house in coastal California I grieve every year as more of my favorite forests burn, from British Columbia to California. There is...
Tis fire season again here in North America and Europe. From my house in coastal California I grieve every year as more of my favorite forests burn, from British Columbia to California.
There is no end in sight for this transition. So what can we do to at least mitigate the worst of its effects? I think the time to play defense over pure "wilderness" is long gone. The forests that haven't burned are still beautiful, but they're riddled with disease and so overgrown the ecosystems are permanently distorted.
Every year there is less pristine forest and more burned land. I'm a fourth generation Californian and the Portuguese side of the family still owns a ranch in the foothills from 1893. But I own nothing and the prospect of being able to afford land in California has forever been beyond my reach. Burned land needs to be rehabilitated in a thoughtful manner. I'm hoping once my daughter finishes college and our life starts a new chapter, that I can find a few acres where I can make the best environmental impact, such as a headwaters, then invite experts onto the land to teach me how to best heal it.
Every year I have this idea, and every year more areas become available (in the worst sense). I don't need to live on this land. I don't expect it to be much more than grasses and saplings for 20 years. I'd get out to it one or two weekends a month, rent some equipment and hire some folks as I could. I also understand that my original thought that this would be immune from future fire seasons is wrong. But at least the land can be designed to be as fire resistant as possible, with a clear understory and single large trees. And that is another part of the allure. This acreage would come with its own challenges for sure, but in some sense it is a blank slate. The permaculture people could show us how to remediate and reconstruct the land from the bones up.
I know this project would be an aggravating money sink, and even perhaps an unrealistic and irresponsible fantasy by someone untrained in forestry management. But there is so much burned land now. Every year another giant 4% stripe of California goes up in smoke. Yet this idea just doesn't catch on. It entails a lot of patience and work. I know it's not what most people want to hear. They want their idyllic cabin in Tahoe or nothing. But that time is quickly coming to an end and learning how to revive the forests that have been devastated is our only real choice.
Whenever I've tried to get serious about this, though, I learn that there is no market in burned land because there is hardly any profit to be made. No real estate agent that I can find is specializing in this because their clients are having to sell ruined land and burned buildings for pennies on the dollar. I've been advised that the best way is to find a specific spot, do my research, and approach the owner directly. But, again, there is so much burned land now I hardly know where to start. The Santa Cruz Mountains? The Sierra adjacent to Yosemite? Crater Lake in Oregon?
Any thoughts or ideas or resources would be appreciated.
25 votes -
Try Guys try firefighting
6 votes -
Scientists are now preparing to drill into the rock of Krafla in Iceland to learn more about how volcanoes behave
3 votes -
Report reveals how workers got sick while cleaning up East Palestine derailment site
14 votes -
A melting Alaska glacier keeps inundating Juneau
19 votes -
Iceland's recent volcanic eruptions driven by pooling magma are set to last centuries into the future
4 votes -
Hidden water reserve twice the size of Loch Ness discovered in drought-stricken Sicily
10 votes -
California’s largest wildfire explodes in size as fires rage across US West
42 votes -
Extreme heat poses ‘real risk’ to Spain’s mass tourism industry
21 votes -
Firefighters in Canada battle to save Jasper's buildings, infrastructure as wildfire engulfs town
23 votes -
East Palestine Ohio after the derailment- reports of hair loss, seizures, residents to decide whether to accept negotiated settlement
42 votes -
California grid meets and surpasses demand during the day in heat wave due to renewables, batteries
49 votes -
Record climate disasters are putting FEMA aid to US cities at risk
20 votes -
Beryl on track to make a Texas landfall on Monday morning
23 votes -
Category 4 Hurricane Beryl will soon reach the Caribbean Sea
27 votes -
Hurricane Beryl setting alarming records
25 votes -
US congressional testimony on the impact of climate-related disasters on the solvency of homeowner's insurance
18 votes -
New NOAA heat severity classification system for heat-related impacts on people (similar to hurricanes)
24 votes -
Why Mount Rainier is the US volcano keeping scientists up at night
35 votes -
Haiti to receive first Kenyan officers in mission to quell gang violence
19 votes -
Iceland's 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption is providing researchers with rare, up-close observations of volcanic ash clouds – could improve forecasts for aviation safety
10 votes -
Climate engineering off US coast could increase heatwaves in Europe, study finds
12 votes -
Divers find remains of Finnish WWII plane that was shot down by Moscow with a US diplomat aboard
18 votes -
‘It’s unbearable’: in ever-hotter US cities, air conditioning is no longer enough
41 votes -
Swedish accident investigators determine country's oldest amusement park Gröna Lund didn't properly test new parts for a roller coaster that derailed last year, killing one
7 votes -
Explorer Ernest Shackleton's last ship found off Labrador's south coast, says expedition
20 votes -
Wired's inside investigation into the Titan submersible disaster
35 votes -
Former astronaut William Anders, who took iconic Earthrise photo, killed in Washington plane crash
34 votes -
Research on Earth’s raging fever of 2023-24 is picking up
9 votes -
California insurance crisis: Angry Orinda homeowners want action
13 votes -
The world’s shameful neglect of Sudan
23 votes -
Deaths mount and water rationed as India faces record heat
43 votes -
Icelandic volcano located near the famous Blue Lagoon has erupted once again – the fifth such eruption since December
11 votes -
Mexico City and Bogotá stare down a ‘Day Zero’ without water
25 votes -
Icelanders are famously hardy, but after volcanic eruptions cracked open twenty-metre-deep fissures in Grindavík, residents are asking if they'll ever be allowed back home
11 votes -
Eastern Air Lines | Bankrupt
4 votes -
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, hardline ally of Supreme Leader, killed in helicopter crash
42 votes -
Helicopter carrying Iran’s President has crashed, state media reports
44 votes -
Canada’s fire season erupts, sending harmful smoke into United States
20 votes -
US Justice Department says Boeing violated deal that avoided prosecution after 737 Max crashes
23 votes -
At least 147 dead in monumental flood in Brazil. 127 missing.
25 votes -
How bridge engineers design against ship collisions
4 votes -
The most powerful fire truck ever created
2 votes -
The United States leads the world in airline safety. That’s because of the way we assign blame when accidents do happen.
46 votes