Colorado Climate Change Future: Grim - According to New Report

Fires like this will be common in Colorado in 25-30 years.

A newly released report (on Thursday) commissioned by three Front Range cities forecasts grim climate conditions for Colorado - certainly for the Front Range, and likely the entire state. This according to the Louisville, CO-based Rocky Mountain Climate Organization.. The forecast includes an increase in the average number of days with temperatures over 100 F, as well as increased precipitation for other areas, i.e. featuring severe winter or summer storms. Already, here in the Springs - two months ago- we were lashed with the worst hail storm in memory with hail stones up to the size of softballs.

We just had our entire roof repaired following hail strikes with pits, holes that one roofer compared to "meteorites" - an exaggeration but he got the point over to us. Now, we are awaiting one entire south side of the siding to be replaced after it was literally ripped into multiple holes by the hail. According to the insurance company (Hartford) hundreds of homes have been affected putting enormous pressure on roofers and others in the area, now forcing wait times of many weeks to complete repairs.  This is only a taste of what's to come if the RMCO projections turn out to be even 50% correct, and there's more reason to believe the probability will be a lot higher.

Much of this isn't surprising in that NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) made similar predictions, including for the entire Rocky Mountain  West, some six years ago. They projected hotter, drier conditions with extended droughts and enhanced fire danger especially as the forests ravaged by the mountain pine beetle spread. See, e.g. this report on the pest.

http://extension.colostate.edu/docs/pubs/insect/05528.pdf

What this pest does is nothing short of horrendous, in converting living plant tissue into highly flammable dead bark for which the slightest spark can start a conflagration. Those readers interested in a detailed account of the trepidations of this pest can get hold of the superb book: The Dying of the Trees.  You can read a shorter account here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/science/18trees.html?pagewanted=all

The point is the beetle is a major catalyst for all the ongoing and uncontained Colorado wild fires, including the nearby Waldo Canyon fire  four years ago.  At the time I posted that thermal currents and winds also dispersed parts of the fire's burgeoning smoke plumes eastward, toward the east side of Colorado Springs where we live.  Basically, if heat-trapping emissions into the atmosphere keep increasing, the northern Front Range climate by 2050 will be fundamentally different. According to lead  researcher Stephen Saunders, director of RMCO,:

“By the middle of the century, summers here will be as hot as summers have been recently in El Paso.  Half the houses in Denver today do not have air conditioning. We’re going to be facing serious threats to people’s health because of these temperature increases,”

Adding:

“Temperature increases also will drive wildfires, increased evaporation from reservoirs, changes in snowpack, and enormous increases in energy use for air conditioning. These temperature changes will affect every aspect of our life.”

Already, Denver's average summer temperature has increased. This year, the average temperature in Denver for June, July and August was 72.7 degrees — 1.5 degrees higher than the annual average of 71.2 dating to 1872, said Kyle Fredin, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Boulder. If current trends in heat-trapping emissions continue, Denver residents by 2050 will face an average of 35 days a year where temperatures hit 95 degrees or hotter, the study found. Right now, the average is five days a year.

Boulder by 2050 will have an average 38 days a year with temperatures exceeding 95 degrees and, by the end of the century, an average of 75 such days a year. The studies found Fort Collins by 2050 will have an average 24 days with temperatures exceeding 95 degrees and 58 days on average by the end of the century.

These numbers may not significantly impress many people, but they should given they mean vastly more demands on the power grid, already stretched energy sources. Currently, half the houses in Denver lack air conditioning as noted above by RMCO Director Stephen Saunders. The proportion is even greater here in Colorado Springs (65%). That means more health problems for those who don't install it, but it also implies the probability of more power outs if all those people do. This is something the deniers need to register as they keep pooh-poohing consequences of a rapidly changing climate.

According to a Denver Post account (Sept. 23, p 1A) the RMCO report was commissioned for the purpose of:

"helping Colorado prepare and are based on government temperature data and university consortium climate models. RMCO does advocacy work in favor of limiting greenhouse gas emissions in addition to climate research. Denver environmental health officials commissioned the Denver climate analysis. Boulder and Fort Collins analyses were done as part of a $57,300 project run by the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.

Denver officials commissioned this study for $9,000 “as a way to frame our actions on climate, both for the mitigation of climate altering greenhouse gas emissions and the adaptation to a warming, altered climate,” city spokeswoman Kerra Jones said. “This study was intended to bring real data into models that could project what that might specifically mean for Denver and the metro area.”


Officials in the three cities that commissioned the study are also painfully aware of the role of increased CO2 emissions. (An appreciation that's been slow to emerge in the right wing City Council members here in the Springs). Prompted to act,  Denver officials last year issued a Climate Action Plan calling for citywide cutting of emissions by 80 percent, below 2005 levels, by 2050.

 Unfortunately, as the Post notes, "local efforts to reduce emissions from vehicles, factories, the oil and gas industry and other sources in Colorado likely would make a small difference because climate change is driven by global-scale increases in heat-trapping gases." So unless thousands of other municipalities around the planet  take action, the difference in conditions will hardly be noticeable. It is a global problem.  According to Saunders, quoted in the Post:

“All this depends on global emissions. However, people around the world will be looking to see what we do here in response.”

Indeed. A prime reason we moved to Colorado 16 years ago was because we believed it to be one of the few places - given its mean altitude - that might weather the worst excesses of climate change. It now appears we were wrong, but when we look around and see the likely impacts on other areas -including Barbados - we still realize we probably have been relatively lucky. Besides, neither of us are likely to still be around when the worst arrives!

 

YES – Global Warming IS Still Real and Ongoing! (Never Mind the Cold!)

Satellite image of Arctic at point of maximal Arctic melting. Increasing warmth in the Arctic is influencing the polar vortex causing icy cold to spill southward to North America.

The disconnect between much of the media (and public) and ongoing global warming has never been more evident than the past week or so as we witnessed a Russian ship trapped by ice in the Antarctic and bone -chilling frigid air in the Midwest today.  But as I will show, none of these events - strange as they may seem  (i.e. Chicago being colder than Siberia this morning)  controvert global warming.

SF Chronicle conservo writer Debra Saunders thought she was being facetious when she wrote the following:

"To recap, when the Aussie expedition on the Russian ship got stuck, the Chinese Xue Long tried to icebreak its way to the stranded ship. But there was too much thick ice and the Xue Long could not reach the Shokalskiy. Then the Australian Aurora Australis tried to come to the rescue, but couldn’t get to the Russian ship either. Ditto a French icebreaker. There was too much thick ice to reach the global-warming research team.

More irony: The AAE was supposed to follow in the footsteps of the 1912 Mawson expedition – which is the last trek I would want to recreate.  The idea was to allow modern scientists to collect data to compare with the Mawson data in order to do improve climate models for global warming. But then there was too much ice, and now the party’s over."

Mayhap for the Aussie team, but that doesn't mean global warming is over. Indeed, what happened to the Shokalskiy can actually be said to have reinforced the theory of global warming. That is, it's been found (Nature Geoscience, March 31) that melting ice shelves actually spur the growth of sea ice - the form that trapped the Russian ship. While Arctic sea ice has dwindled, Antarctic sea ice has expanded nearly two percent per decade since 1985.

 

As oceans have warmed over the same period, their currents have carried heat to the deep waters surrounding Antarctica. This deflected warmth melts the base of ice shelves, i.e. sections of the Antarctic ice sheet that float over the ocean.  The melting then floods the ocean with cold fresh water that remains on the surface and easily freezes.  Hence, the trapping of the Shokalskiy.

 

 

Regarding the record breaking bone –chilling cold in the Midwest today, this can also be traced to global warming – as originally proposed in a theory by Gunther Weller, more than 25 years ago. That is,  something called “the polar vortex” is normally stable and circulating around the Arctic, like a massive cyclone. (Weller called it  a stable polar cyclone)   However, with increased warming in the Arctic (especially more than anyplace else on Earth) the circulation in the vortex is weakened and the vortex’s cold spills southward – discharging energy and creating the record breaking cold we’re now seeing in places like Minnesota.

 

As a weather specialist noted this morning (CBS), it is unwise to just cherry pick the frigid cold experienced in some parts today and laugh at global warming – since every place else is seeing a warming trend.  Also, warming begins much earlier than it had incepting natural changes in flora and fauna to respond to it. (For example, the dandelions in my yard now begin flowering in early to mid March as opposed to late April. Meanwhile, the maple syrup in Vermont is being adversely affected by too early warmth which is also now too enduring – into the fall).
 

Worse, the unabated general warming trend, such as here in the Rocky Mountain West, has meant the spread of the Mountain Pine Beetle - now destroying forests  by the hundreds of thousands of acres each year. The beetle basically turns trees into tinder for which the slightest spark  - say from a randomly tossed cigarette- can cause a densely forested area to explode into a wildfire. This is what happened with the Black Forest fire last year, and the Waldo Canyon fire the year before that.

 

Only a dunderhead  or nitwit would in any way use the bone chilling cold, snow or even ice storms to try to deny global warming. But don't worry, many idiots will still try!

 

 

Homeowners in Fire Zones May Well Be Dinged Next Year- And They Should BE!

A home is engulfed by flames in Black Forest back in June this year. Higher fees, taxes and insurance premiums on these home owners ought to limit future disasters here in Colorado.

"Wildfires have been part of living in the West ever since people first settled here. For several decades, there has been a continuous buildup of hazardous fuels and this growing risk requires a response."  - Governor John Hickloooper, last Monday at State Capitol after referencing the creation of his Wildlife Insurance and Forest Health Task Force in 2012 and the need to impose higher fees, taxes, insurance premiums on those living in fire danger zones.

Imagine a person choosing to live near a fuel dump where partly- filled cans and containers of gasoline are regularly tossed. Imagine also that each year fierce, dry heat is incepted by climate conditions which trigger one or more explosive fires  after the containers explode.  Yet each year the fuel dump dwellers expect government resources to bail their homes out, while also expecting insurance companies to cough up the bread for rebuilding and not raise their premiums.

What's wrong with this picture? Everything.

In the case of the Colorado fires, specifically the Waldo Canyon fire last year which destroyed over 350 homes, and the Black Forest fire this year which destroyed thousands, we know the fuel includes hollowed out pine and other trees,  turned into tinder by the Mountain Pine Beetle.  In effect, all those folks living in the forested areas of the state are inhabiting de facto "fuel dumps" which was the point of the governor's remark last Monday.  And if they are living in those fuel dump zones, then they ought to be expected to pay more for the privilege  - given precious fire fighting resources will most likely have to be expended there.

As the Colorado Springs Gazette pointed out Tuesday(page B-1) , according to Hickenlooper's proposal, home owners in high risk fire areas would "have their properties rated for wildfire risk and face special fees and taxes to help fund fire mitigation efforts - under recommendations released Monday by the governor's wildfire task force."

Of course, this is eminently reasonable! If you choose to live in a sequestered, private area laden with tinder for wildfires, you ought to be expected to pay for likely consequences and resources needed to help you - given the experiences of the last two years. To expect those of us who live in "normal" areas to swallow higher insurance premiums for your choices is nothing short of nuts. Why should we, given we derive no benefit? (I.e. being able to book your home for a weekend stay - getaway.)

Therefore, exceptionally assessing higher fees, taxes and even higher insurance premiums for properties in high risk fire areas is both rational and fair - and certainly not "spoils taking" ass suggested by Robert Samuelson (last blog).

Still, local GOP-ers, like Springs Mayor Steve Bach, are complaining and arguing that they "would not support a state wide fee for mitigation".  Oh, and he also rejects any talk of a "mitigation audit" - based on state assessors rating homes on a 1-10 scale for fire danger, as recommended by Barbara Kelley - executive  Director of the Dept. of Regulatory Agencies. (op. cit., p. B-5)

Such audits, if yielding scores as high as 9 or 10 would "render some properties uninsurable and thus unsellable". The task force has also recommended disclosures of the risk ratings when homes are sold.

Reepos like Bach hate such proposals because, of course, they don't wish to antagonize their higher income voters, most of whom are those with the properties in the higher risk areas.

But, if our legislators are sane they will ram this task force mitigation mandate through - like they earlier did Colorado's gun control legislation, including limiting magazines to 10 clips.

Stay tuned!

Good RIDDANCE to Summer!

Massive fires, and now floods, seem to be more and more in the future of Colorado with each passing summer.

Two weeks ago, a neighbor inquired into my use of a chain saw to cut down a weed.  I pointed out to him that this (now)  4 ft. high invader had already broken my large shears - trying to take it down- and this emerged as the only solution. He then laughed, as he continued walking his dog, and exclaimed:

"I believe the weeds are taking over! They already have my place!"

The good thing is an end to the war may be in sight - along with a merciful end to the summer. Today, at precisely 4.44 p.m. EDT, (2: 44 MDT)  the Sun (in its path along the ecliptic), crosses the celestial equator moving southward and heralds the autumnal equinox. (Equinox meaning equal day and night all over the world). Thus, autumn enters, and a miserable summer departs.

What made the summer miserable?

First, the advent of  summer over here each year is marked by an invasion of tens of millions of moths. The Miller Moth has attained notoriety by being able to somehow miss its ultimate destination - the mountains - heading instead toward Front Range city lights. The critters, thereby disoriented, enter homes by the hundreds, crawling through tiny cracks you'd never believe a flat worm could negotiate - and ending up on carpets, drapes, in dishes, in food, in heat vents and .....'dive bombing' humans forced to use "the throne" late at night. Oh, they also try to squirm into the ears  of sleeping humans....or pets...They aren't choosy!


The invasion usually lasts a full month, sometimes longer. The usual way we deal with it is to fill bowls with water then place them directly under bright lights to allow the little beasties to dive bomb into the water.  After collecting maybe fifty or sixty at a time, the bowl is emptied on the lawn - the moths essentially dead, or near dead. Another way, more my choice - not Janice's  - is to snatch any little bugger I can (say off a wall) then crunch it between my fingers and chuck it into a disposal.  Look, the little bastards are cute, make no mistake, and we hate to butcher their sorry little asses, but they are pests! Ask Krimhilde - my sister-in law-  who visits with us every other year and on one occasion ran screaming from her room as one determined Miller moth tried to wiggle into her ear canal.

By the time the moth invasion ends the summer solstice has usually already begun and then it's time for: weeds, skunks and fires!  The weeds, depending on the temperatures (more if warmer) usually start erupting in late April, and by mid summer have taken over nearly the whole yard. How tough are they/ Tough! Forget standard lawn mowers or even large shears, you often need a chain saw to take down the biggest ones - which I was shocked to see had reached heights of up to 4 feet in my backyard this year.  Neglect to take care of them, and you get "weed trees" - as incredible as it may sound.

Somehow, some way, the weeds in the Rocky Mountain West have been getting "jet fuel". What is it? Well, its higher concentrations of carbon dioxide, thanks to global warming!  This is no joke! The warning was probably first sounded three years ago in 2 articles in The Wall Street Journal (June 4, 2010,  p A16, 'Superweeds Trigger New Arms Race'; and June 21, p. D1, 'Least Welcome Sign of Summer')

According to the first account, by the middle of this decade at least 40% of U.S. corn and soybean crops will "harbor Roundup resistant super weeds". Roundup, and especially Monsanto's Roundup -ready seeds, have been amongst the biggest "success stories" in the domain of weed control, primarily because of its primary constituent:  glyphosate- which is one of the least toxic around. As one farmer cited in the first article put it: If glyphosate isn't the safest herbicide, it's damned close".

The article described nine species of weed that  have developed total immunity to it and spread to millions of acres in more than twenty states. One farmer, quoted,  from Osceola, AR  claimed he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on herbicide, but couldn't control the pigweed which now runs rampant over his 8,600 acre field.

The variant of pigweed on his property grows to six feet in height on a stalk the width of a baseball bat's wide end. The weed is so tough, it damages mechanical parts of his cotton picking equipment and must be rooted out by hand. The farmer had to hire 20 labor hands to attack the weeds using hoes, even then breaking a number of them. Hmmmm.....sounds familiar!  The second article references a study published in the journal Weed Science, in 2007, which indicates poison ivy is getting bigger and spreading faster, plus producing more urushiol as a result of increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The emergence of these super weeds, especially as threats to farm productivity (not to mention yards) has convinced many farmers they must resort to much more toxic weedicides to get the job done. That includes using such infamous carcinogenic agents as: 2, 4- D, dicamba and paraquat. But critics have warned given the uncontrolled factors afoot, such as ever increasing CO2 concentrations (now tipping at nearly 400 ppm) all that will happen is that even more super weeds will emerge, resistant to even those arch-herbicides.

My neighbors - to battle their yard weeds, have resorted to atrazine but they are fighting a losing battle. Each year the dandelions and other weeds grow larger and take up more area. In the end, even when their yard looks luscious green, they can't enjoy it - and are compelled to erect 'Danger - POISON!' signs to keep kids and pets off.

Then there are the skunks. They've invaded only over the past two years, arriving with the major fires in Waldo Canyon (last year) and Black Forest (this year). Perhaps they were chased out of their natural enclaves, who knows? What we do know, in our neighborhood, is people have to keep dogs in the house at night .....or risk them being skunk sprayed as happened to one forlorn dog two houses down two months ago. Skunks make their presence known by spraying.....maybe just for the hell of it. At least three times this year we've had to shut all windows in the house as the "aromatic" odor from skunk spray wended its way in.   Far worse than the malodorous fumes is the fact that skunks here have now emerged as the primary carriers of rabies.

With the Waldo Canyon fire, meanwhile, we've received a wake up call here in Colorado, that monster blazes may well be recurring part of our summers every year. But this was predicted by NOAA and other sources, i.e. hotter, drier and longer 'tinder box' summers, coupled with trees turned into tinder by pests like the Mountain Pine Beetle.  We had a second demonstration of the dynamic this year with the Black Forest Fire. Understandably, major efforts are now being made across the Front Range for fire mitigation - which includes insurance companies demanding home owners in fire hazard areas to clear cut shrubs and trees from their property up to a certain distance. It's great that so many people love to live essentially in a forested area, but not great the rest of us (who don't) have to subsidize their insurance premiums each time fires hit. This will be another bone of contention that needs to be addressed among different sets of homeowners in the region.

Then there are the floods....what can I say? Who would have thought or believed that such a "Katrina-like" deluge would strike an arid state - located in what is known as the high desert region of the country. But there it is!  What it discloses is that the perturbations induced by climate change can wreak havoc even in areas where one would normally not expect such disasters. All it took was days of high heat, with temperatures 15-17 degrees above normal, followed by a cold front coming in and the delayed start of the yearly "monsoons". Then...WHAMMO! Massive floods sending rivers and creeks in the northern part of the state up to five and six feet over flood stage. Whole towns, like Lyons and Jamestown swept away, as well as forty or more miles of roads, highways and people still cut off.

Let me say, with the arrival of fall, I am happy again...to be done with the pests, the weeds, the fires and hopefully the floods. Sure, there'll be raking of leaves, but that's a minor nuisance compared to the other crap.

Next summer? I will deal with that when it arrives!

Raging Fires Return to Colorado!

A home is engulfed in Black Forest, roughly 8 miles north of my place.


The choking smoke smothered everything in sight this morning, even as I struggled to get the hoses ready for front and backyards to water down the tinder dry lawn.  This experience was even worse than last year's (Waldo Canyon Fire) since I have been fighting an acute case of bronchitis for the past week. Despite that, I tied on a make-do face mask, dampened first, and went about soaking the lawn given the fire this year is even closer.

We suspected the worst might happen yesterday around 2 p.m. when 15 acres was first reported burning in the Black Forerst neighborhood, a tony uppercrust, "independent" subdivision about eight miles north of us. TV images taken from the corner of Powers and Woodmen in Colorado Springs showed billowing smoke and the TV meteorologist didn't make light of the fact that conditions were ideal for it to spread: 97 deg F, barely 7% humidity and winds out of the southeast at 30-34 mph.  He then showed a disarming photo of Black Forest lush with its green, well manicured lawns - but noted looks can be deceiving. Particularly as the trees that surrounded the area itself had literally become tinder for fire.

I noted the reasons why last year, when writing about the Waldo Canyon Fire that erupted south of us.That is, that the trees in Colorado have been victimized by sundry insects -particularly the mountain pine beetle -  mainly on account of the drought which has unleashed them in greater numbers.  They've essentially  converted the once living material into tinder that literally explodes when conditions are right- as they were yesterday afternoon.

So true, since from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. the Black Forest Fire expanded to 400 acres, then reached 800 acres by 5.30 p.m. and 3, 800 acres by 9 p.m. When I awoke this a.m. it was at 8,000 acres with zero containment and people from Falcon were being required to evacuate. Already anywhere from 60-80 homes may have been destroyed.

One of the problems has been lack of adequate water and manpower resources, this as another fire is raging south of us and another erupted near the Royal Gorge, rapidly expanding to 3, 800 acres. The latter fire saw state bureau of prisons agents evacuating prisoners  from the Colorado Territorial Prison at Canyon City. At one point, water storage tanks had to be raided, and since no large slurry planes were available. Instead,  four odd Chinook helicopters (from Ft. Carson) had to be loaded, each with a few hundred gallons, to dump them on thousands of burning acres. A water "shortage" was referred to at one point, and I couldn't help thinking of the 14- 18 million gallons of water wasted so far in our area by fracking for natural gas wells (all of which have emerged 'dry') that might have been used now to put out the fires.

Will the frackers (and the state) learn from this? Somehow, I doubt it. This despite, as I also noted last year, the trend is for these hot, dry raging fire summers to continue in Colorado and the Mountain west. Recall my reference last June to a Washington Post article entitled: Pace of Climate Change Exceeds Estimates, wherein one read:

"Warmer weather, earlier snowmelt, drought and beetle infestations facilitated by warmer climates are all contributing to the rising number of fires linked to climate change. Across large swaths of the United States and Canada, bark beetles have killed many mature trees, making forests more flammable. And tropical rain forests that were not susceptible to forest fires in the past are likely to become drier as temperatures rise, growing more vulnerable."


The beetle referenced above is the mountain pine beetle, a variant of the bark beetle species. It's modus operandi is basically to convert living plant tissue - say in trees -  into highly flammable dead bark for which the slightest spark can set off a conflagration. The beetle then, is a major catalyst for all the presently raging and uncontained Colorado wildfires.

What will we do in the meantime? All we can do is hope the wind direction soon changes so that the acrid odor of smoke which now permeates the house can be abated. Most of it is drawn in with the operation of the evaporative cooler. But with temperatures set to hit 90 today there's no way to turn it off and close all the windows- we'd suffocate. So, we have to tough it out.

Shameless Casting of Blame by Ignorant Local Wingnuts

"The private sector is supposed to do more than the federal and state government? What planet are you libertarians living on? How is it profitable for a private business to lift a finger to help someone out? The ONLY reason the private sector exists is to make as much money as possible... Not help people. The ONLY exception to this is non-profit entities- and are you suggesting people seek disaster funds from them? Their coffers would be overwhelmed in an hour. I can just picture evacuees going to their local business store to ask for free stuff because they were fire victims- they'd be laughed out of the place!”

- Reader response to recent Gazette 'Our View' on Preference for Private Sector Fire Response

Let's cut to the chase: Without a concerted, pooled federal response, marshalling teams of trained fire fighters as well as an aerial assault using C-130s dropping tons of slurry, Colorado Springs - all of it- might well have burned to the ground. It was that rapid response (within two days of the start of the Waldo Canyon fire) and within a day of the request for aid, that teams arrived and began the fight that has now contained the Waldo monster by 80%.

You'd think the local wingnuts and Libertarians would be on bended knee giving praise to the feds, but instead they' re doing anything but - continuing to act like spoilt ingrates that need a board taken to their collective backsides.

Let's leave out for now the disgusting one-sided "polls" mounted by the local Libbie rag (the Gazette) which results were posted in Monday's ( Colorado Springs Gazette, p. A12) paper, showing:

- 56% gave the federal response to fighting the fires as an 'F'

- 14% gave the federal response a D.

That is 70 percent of Gazelle respondents giving a grade of D or below! I'd earlier blogged about these local yahoos and miscreants blaming the feds for "arriving too slowly":

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2012/06/springs-wingnuts-explain-reasons-for.html

when the law ('Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 2007') clearly stipulates that:  "The intent of the Stafford Act is that Federal assistance be supplemental to local, state, and private relief organizations. Nevertheless, it is not neessary for the community to exhaust its resources before it requests Federal assistance"

Yet the local dunderheads exactly misconstrued the above law, believing they had to allow private resources to be exhausted before going to the feds. (A misperception I lay at the  feet of their core aversion to ANY federal aid, hence engendering a rationalized delay....perhaps to be able to blame the same feds for lack of alacrity later). Indeed, according to our Reep Rep Doug Lamborn:

"What Congress has decided previously is that in a case like this the private sector has to deplete its resources before federal assets can be brought to bear.""

Instead of owning up to their misconstrual  and misreading of the law, they continue to blame the Feds for "allowing several C-130s to sit idle for days" and then accusing them of "following protocol". Meanwhile, in today's Opinion, the local rag continues its bullshit with the header:

'Feds Have Bungled Fire Fighting Plan'

Accusing Obama and the feds of a "lack of dedication to controlling fire on its land was further exposed on Sunday when the Denver Post published a story about a bold strategy to battle wildfires."

These nutsos at the Gazelle (my mock term for them) then go on to assert that the Post "quotes the director of resources of the Government Accountability Office explaining the importance of Fire Program analysis. The GAO has warned Congress, in reports and hearings, that federal firefighting agencies were failing to implement the new technology."

Any why the fuck do you think THAT is, you dumb assholes? It's because the austerity-deficit hawk  fetishists - and Tea Baggers in the HOUSE (the Republican -controlled HOUSE) have refused to increase the necessary budgets to provide for the implementation of said technology! In other words, you're bitching about your own kindred assholes!  But rather than be direct and honest, the Gazelle conflates all of the feds under the single term "Congress" as opposed to further differentiation that would expose THEIR limited government side as the culprits.

And, for a reminder, let us recall Mitt Romney's OWN words  castigating Obama, while echoing the Tea Bagger clique he so desperately needs to win:

"He wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more firemen, more policemen, more teachers."

And, of course, new fire fighting  implementation technologies are useless without more firemen! (Whether to fight urban fires or wildfires). Hence, knowing this, the Reep House elected to reject the new technology implementation budgets since with that move the need to hire more fire fighters (as well as replace worn and aging air craft for aerial firefighting) would be obviated. No new money need be spent.

But the choicest canard and the item to which the reader responded (top of blog-quote from online comments) was an opinion rendered a few days ago when the editor (Wayne Laugesen):

"How we recover from Waldo will define this community. Local, state and federal governments are doing their share, but they have limitations. The private sector has far fewer limitations and should shoulder the bulk of our community’s recovery efforts. No able-bodied person among us lives above or beneath the need to assist the community in getting back on its feet. Each of us has something we can give".

Well, at least in this piece Laugesen got it right that the feds were "doing their share". But then he goes on to claim the private sector "has far fewer limitations". Really? Well, truth be told you will wait until Hell freezes over for any general relief using major pooled efforts-resources from them, as the reader opined. Their byword is PROFIT and hence, using their private resources for rebuilding etc. will only reduce their profits, so reduce any willingness to assist. (As opposed to existing non-profits, e.g. 'Care & Share',  which can help but whose resources are limited).

As for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)  averring they "will not make anyone whole" - referring to the owners of the 350 -odd homes lost in Mountain Shadows' upscale neighborhood, that is par for the course. When my folks' ($100,000) home in Port Charlotte, FLA sustained major damage from Hurricane Charlie in 2004, FEMA barely covered one half of the expenses. Insurance did pay the balance but then the rates were jacked up three times higher the following year. This is one reason Port Charlotte remains a place full of abandoned homes to this day, as I learned when I returned for my dad's funeral in July, 2009.

Mountain Shadows'  residents have a bigger 'mountain' to climb since their homes average $450,000 - $500,000 each and hence rebuilding costs will be a lot more than in Florida for that hurricane. Estimates now run to $100 million. One could even ask (being politically incorrect here) about the advisability of rebuilding in an area which is now known to be fire prone. Doubtless, the insurance companies will also reckon that question into the mix when the new rates are issued for homeowners there, even those who didn't lose homes (the same way new rates were jacked up for everyone in my folks' neighborhood - and one reason they had no choice other than to move to a retirement complex.)

Time will tell, but time so far has shown much of the limited government brigade in the Springs to be unrepentant, shameless ingrates...as well as assholes. That's my opinion....and you're right, I could be in a better mood, but am not!

Colo. Springs Comes to Senses: Begs for Federal Help

Colorado Springs is perhaps the most conservative city in the U.S. and that includes its surrounding county, El Paso. This is not surprising if one has lived here any length of time. After all, 'Focus on the Family' is headquarted here, along with some 84 fundamentalist Christian churches. It also has a large military retiree populace, nearly 4 of 5 of whom profess to be diehard Repubs. Further, it is the home to a number of military installations including the well-known Air Force Academy, Peterson AFB, and Fort Carson - now housing 31,000 troops. We also know (from many polls) where most of the military stand in respect to their political persuasion.

The Springs and El Paso County have also in the past four years become fierce braggarts in the realm of proudly denying or dismissing federal aid or money, including for stimulus to get its economy going. (It has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state at 8.5%). Most recently, when nearly $300,000 was offered to implement three jobs the City Council brashly turned the money down saying: "We ain't takin' no federal dough!"

This is certainly an interesting (and paradoxical) take given they have no qualms about grabbing millions in "federal dough" each year, to support all the military and their bases. And, of course, as I'd blogged about before:

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2011/04/1-billion-boondoggle-combat-air-brigade.html

the Springs and El Paso County is currently salivating at the prospect of grabbing nearly a billion to set up a 'combat air brigade'.   The point? They LOVE the feds when the federal tax largesse feathers their own nest (via congressional pork that disadvantages other U.S. towns, regions)  but don't want the feds' help when it entails stimulus money for new jobs for regular citizens, or other assistance. (Little wonder that even as money has poured in to support the military, the city itself has had to close parks, shutter restrooms, and darken street lights to save money....as well as close schools!)

Now, the news that the County has beseeched the federal government for its resources in fighting the Waldo Canyon fire, is a firm reminder that there are definite limits to their "do it ourselves except for military funding" mindset. For those who may not know, the Waldo Canyon fire erupted over Friday- Saturday and quickly metastasized within four hours Saturday night, from 2,500 acres to more than 10,000 acres. The local crews, including from the Colorado Springs Fire Dept. quickly realized they were "out gunned" and - as reported by the Colorado Springs Gazette (today, p. 2A):

"El Paso County officials....pushed for federal fire resources Sunday. County Commissioner Sallie Clarke and her colleagues declared  the Waldo Canyon burn a disaster ...allowing the County to appropriate federal funds, aircraft and crews to join the battle".

Well, frankly, it is at least nice to know Commissioner Sallie Clarke (who spurned any federal stimulus money for the county 3 years ago, despite decaying infrastructure,..roads, bridges, corroded 100-yr. old water mains) now finally acknowledges a point at which she needs the "dastardly"  feds and their $$.

But one is left to wonder if it will ever happen again, and for more normal services and support, apart from sucking on the fed for military goodies!