5 ms·

I’m Leaving the West Coast

10 points by rblion 6y ago

mturmon 6y ago
West Coast fires, not a surprise. “It is hard for people who have not lived in Los Angeles to realize how radically the Santa Ana figures in the local imagination. The city burning is Los Angeles's deepest image of itself; Nathanael West perceived that, in The Day of the Locust; and at the time of the 1965 Watts riots what struck the imagination most indelibly were the fires. For days one could drive the Harbor Freeway and see the city on fire, just as we had always known it would be in the end. Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and, just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England determine the way life is lived there, so the violence and the unpredictability of the Santa Ana affect the entire quality of life in Los Angeles, accentuate its impermanence, its unreliability. The wind shows us how close to the edge we are.” -- Joan Didion, 1968 There are other quotes from her as well! Of course the fires have been more intense this year. But to write as if it's unprecedented is ahistorical.
- toss1 6y ago
  No, it is actually historically accurate Of course, there have always been fires. But this year already 3,627,010 acres have burned, and "While wildfires are a natural part of California’s landscape, the fire season in California and across the West is starting earlier and ending later each year. Climate change is considered a key driver of this trend. Warmer spring and summer temperatures, reduced snowpack, and earlier spring snowmelt create longer and more intense dry seasons that increase moisture stress on vegetation and make forests more susceptible to severe wildfire. The length of fire season is estimated to have increased by 75 days across the Sierras and seems to correspond with an increase in the extent of forest fires across the state."[0] Five of the six largest fires in history of California have been this year, and the season isn't even over [1] [0] https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/ https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_wildfires https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_wildfires
  - mturmon 6y ago
    Thank you, point well taken. The feelings may be the same, but you're right, the underlying fires are more intense and pervasive.
king_panic 6y ago
I'm leaving Portland
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

10 points by rblion 6y ago

West Coast fires, not a surprise. “It is hard for people who have not lived in Los Angeles to realize how radically the Santa Ana figures in the local imagination. The city burning is Los Angeles's deepest image of itself; Nathanael West perceived that, in The Day of the Locust; and at the time of the 1965 Watts riots what struck the imagination most indelibly were the fires. For days one could drive the Harbor Freeway and see the city on fire, just as we had always known it would be in the end. Los Angeles weather is the weather of catastrophe, of apocalypse, and, just as the reliably long and bitter winters of New England determine the way life is lived there, so the violence and the unpredictability of the Santa Ana affect the entire quality of life in Los Angeles, accentuate its impermanence, its unreliability. The wind shows us how close to the edge we are.” -- Joan Didion, 1968 There are other quotes from her as well! Of course the fires have been more intense this year. But to write as if it's unprecedented is ahistorical.

toss1 6y ago
No, it is actually historically accurate Of course, there have always been fires. But this year already 3,627,010 acres have burned, and "While wildfires are a natural part of California’s landscape, the fire season in California and across the West is starting earlier and ending later each year. Climate change is considered a key driver of this trend. Warmer spring and summer temperatures, reduced snowpack, and earlier spring snowmelt create longer and more intense dry seasons that increase moisture stress on vegetation and make forests more susceptible to severe wildfire. The length of fire season is estimated to have increased by 75 days across the Sierras and seems to correspond with an increase in the extent of forest fires across the state."[0] Five of the six largest fires in history of California have been this year, and the season isn't even over [1] [0] https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/ https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2020/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_wildfires https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_California_wildfires
- mturmon 6y ago
  Thank you, point well taken. The feelings may be the same, but you're right, the underlying fires are more intense and pervasive.

king_panic 6y ago

I'm leaving Portland

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]