SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A wildfire near the resort town of Sisters, Oregon, doubled in size to 6.2 square miles (16 square kilometers) Monday, forcing evacuations in the area, while the state’s biggest fire continued to burn out of control, with containment not expected until November.
That wildfire, dubbed the Bootleg Fire, has scorched over 240 square miles (622 square kilometers) in southern Oregon. Fire managers estimated the fire won’t be contained until around Nov. 30. It started on July 6 from unknown causes.
“The fire will continue to be extremely active in unchecked portions of the perimeter, with unstable air conditions and extremely dry fuels,” fire managers in the Fremont-Winema National Forest said Monday.
Oh, and it’s no longer drought.
Welcome to the future.
To be fair, down here, it’s not aridification.
For almost a month it’s been when, not if, it rains, but global warming brings other concerns (hurricane season until, um, the Bootleg Fire is contained–though it could last longer now).
So, the deniers react with…total culture war.
Muddy the waters, stir in a liberal (pun intended) helping of smoke (literally) and mirrors, hope for a both-sides response from corporate media…rinse, repeat.
To repeat something I’ve mentioned before, I think right versus left is less a question of political ideology, and more a clash of superstition versus, if not first-hand knowledge, at least an understanding of it.