“A gamble on lives, property and natural resources”

Just one thing:

If you just check out one thing, this Joint Economic Committee report, by considering a wide range of wildfire cost, finds that the economic impact of wildfires is equivalent to between 2-4% of the US GDP (many headlines quote 'up to $900 billion'), which is much higher than previously thought.?The full report is available as a pdf and for more of a synopsis, CNN covered it.

“I hope this report creates a sense of urgency at all levels of government for implementing real climate policies. When Americans decide that a problem is worth solving, there’s nothing that can’t be accomplished,” said JEC Chairman Martin Heinrich (D), New Mexico.

This week's contents:

• Fire, Generally | ??Wondering whether PG&E will be able to underground their lines? So are they. Ever tried talking to a rock? Turns out they have a lot to say about wildfire… and some Maui updates
• Climate | ?? Increasingly common, NYT reports on the impact of megafires on the ecology of areas that experience them. The EPA is getting heat for its allowance of ‘exceptional circumstances’ in air quality measurements, and it’s not just Californians who can’t get insurance anymore
• Firefighting | ??Firefighter among victims of Hamas attack ??, the problem of burnt vehicles in Maui, the (cont’d) federal firefighter pay dilemma, ?? human caused fires are up, and more
• Firetech | ??Rain at UP.Summit, and Pano in Austin (and at home in SF)
• What’s burning? | ??The northern hemisphere is cooling while we’re seeing more activity in the south

Fire, Generally

Wondering whether PG&E will be able to underground their lines? So are they. Ever tried talking to a rock? Turns out they have a lot to say about wildfire, and some Maui updates.?

• WSJ covers the debate between PG&E and regulators over whether or not to carry on undergrounding power lines (this is the story that gave us this week's fire news headline).
• Quartz (as in the mineral ??) has been shown to reveal the highest temperatures it’s been exposed to, which may unlock some interesting new ways to infer ancient fire intensity. In other words, understanding the past will help us predict and prepare for current and future fire hazards.
• Beyond the banyan: ?? even more ancient trees in Maui and the efforts of arborists to renew interest in them in order to save them.

“...Researchers believe breadfruit and kukui nut — now the state tree of Hawaii — were among the many edible plants Polynesian voyagers brought around 1,000 years ago. Such imports could have been carried across the ocean, wrapped in rotted coconut husk and dried leaves and protected in a woven coconut basket.”

• In Maui, 911 calls from the devastating August fires in Lahaina are being released. Personally, with everything else that’s going on in the world at present, I don’t have the heart to go there just now. But what I can read is this reporter’s story about what it felt like to connect with, and report on, one family’s harrowing experience trying to escape Lahaina.?“When Folau spoke, it brought me to tears. But that emotion tells me that the story matters, and I use it while I’m writing. That’s one way of coping — being able to get it out and onto paper.” —Corina Knoll

Climate

Increasingly common, NYT reports on the impact of megafires on the ecology of areas that experience them. The EPA is getting heat for its allowance of ‘exceptional circumstances’ in air quality measurements, and it’s not just Californians who can’t get insurance anymore.

• The New York Times reports on the changes to vast ecosystems in the age of megafires.
• Illegal logging is reduced in the Amazon rainforest, but unfortunately, in the midst of a severe drought, wildfires are up.
• In wildfire-prone areas, Minnesotans are learning they’re uninsurable, just like Californians learned earlier this year.?
• In a major investigation, multiple news outlets teamed up to report on the use of the ‘exceptional circumstances’ rule around air quality across the US.?

“In the US, clean-air policy long allowed local governments to write off some wildfire smoke on a case-by-case-basis as “unrealistic to control” or “impractical to fully control”. But in 2005, the Republican senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, who has long denied the climate crisis, won a years-long battle to amend the Clean Air Act. The new rule gave local officials more opportunity to exclude pollution from regulatory consideration for an array of events, from fireworks displays and volcanic eruptions to wildfires and even unusual traffic events.”

Firefighting

Firefighter among victims of Hamas attack, the problem of burnt vehicles in Maui, the (cont’d) federal firefighter pay dilemma, human caused fires are up, and more.

• A fire chief was among the victims in Sderot in Israel on October 7th ??. This is only one obituary among so much heartbreak that is ongoing in Israel and Gaza.?
• You may recall all the burnt vehicles in the photos of Lahaina? Maui County officials are asking the public for help figuring out who they all belong to, a very tricky problem.?
• According to Tennessee law, firefighting is not an essential service, which means they aren’t required to fund them, while in Washington, staffing shortages lead to increases in response times and serious gaps in coverage.
• An LA Times opinion from former Cal Fire chief, Ken Pimlott on the continuing problems of wildland firefighter pay (or lack thereof) says, “A failure to act on federal firefighter pay is a gamble on lives, property and natural resources — and recent tragedies remind us that we can ill afford to take chances.”
• Almost ? of the wildfires tracked by Idaho officials were human caused and the state’s cost for fighting fires is expected to hit $17.4 million for 2023.
• Wisconsin says PFAs foam is toxic and bans it, but they can still use it in Alabama.?
• Resources radio has a nice interview with Emily Browne, who just finished up fire season in Alaska as a wildland firefighter on an all-female crew that was formed to address the gender disparity in the industry.
• This week at Rain we got excited about this USDA Forest Service tool to improve fire front simulators to test firefighting gear in controlled, measurable, repeatable experiments.

Firetech

Rain at UP.Summit, and Pano in Austin (and at home in SF)

• Last week at the UP.Summit we announced our collaboration with Sikorsky, which was covered by Popular Science, AOPA, and Vertical, among others.
• Pano is coming to Austin, TX, though the team is still psyched to call the SF Mission district home. “As someone who has lived and worked in the Mission since 2016, I found it to be the ideal location for a startup like ours,” Sonia Kastner, Pano AI’s CEO and co-founder, told SFGATE.?

What’s burning?

The northern hemisphere is cooling while we’re seeing more activity in the south.

• Mississippi, Colorado, the Amazon rainforest of Brazil, Australia.
• Meanwhile, and very notably, Canada’s fire season is beginning to show signs that it’s slowing, and The Washington Post offers some fresh statistics for consideration with an absolutely gorgeous visualization of the Canadian fire season using NASA data, by cartographer Peter Atwood—a screenshot of the video was our hero image this week. Posted just a few days ago, the view count is over 27k. Should be fun to see where it’s at in a month.