How to ride in the smoke.

[mfgrep]

Why are so many Americans anti-science? Did your defence budget totally eradicate quality public education?Apparently. It’s embarrassing to human intelligence to see paranoia replace facts.Happy Riding!

Among a substantive percentage of voters we do have a general lack of support for public education and for teachers in the US. This last decade has seen public education (and its varying curriculum) hotly debated among elected officials solely for political purposes and without much consideration for our future(s). It is depressing to watch. Our recent past President had nominated a political donor as Secretary of Education (Betsy DeVos....wife of Amway CEO) and her stance(s) on public education were underwhelming to say the least.
There are federal monies in public education....and many wish to get a 'piece' of it. Additionally....politicians here argue whether it is appropriate to teach children about 'this' or 'that'....entirely in an effort to enthrall their constituents. It is disheartening.

 

[Blake Cheetah]

"Destroying any nation does not involve the use of atomic bombs or long-range missiles..
It only requires lowering the quality of education and allowing cheating in the examinations by the students.
Patients die at the hands of such doctors.
Buildings collapse at the hands of such engineers.
Money is lost at the hands of such economists & accountants.
Justice is lost at the hands of such Judges.
The collapse of education is the collapse of the nation." -Mandela

Among a substantive percentage of voters we do have a general lack of support for public education and for teachers in the US. This last decade has seen public education (and its varying curriculum) hotly debated among elected officials solely for political purposes and without much consideration for our future(s). It is depressing to watch. Our recent past President had nominated a political donor as Secretary of Education (Betsy DeVos....wife of Amway CEO) and her stance(s) on public education were underwhelming to say the least.
There is federal monies in public education....and many wish to get a 'piece' of it. Additionally....politicians here argue whether it is appropriate to teach children about 'this' or 'that'....entirely in an effort to enthrall their constituents. It is disheartening.

Ow.Yet thanks for such a cogent response.May yr informed views become the norm on this site.

 

[Djangodog]

It looks like a lot of the rest of the country is getting a taste of what its been like in California for the last couple of years. All of my old stomping grounds (campgrounds) are burned to a cinder. they say it'll take 35 years to regrow from meadows to forest again. So I won't see it.

I heard that it was because you guys didn’t rake the forest floor. Sorry, I know that its not funny.

 

[Tars Tarkas]

I heard that it was because you guys didn’t rake the forest floor. Sorry, I know that its not funny.

Our scientists are too busy working on toilets than only need to be flushed once, or maybe twice.

 

[Rexlion]

Why are so many Americans anti-science? Did your defence budget totally eradicate quality public education?Apparently. It’s embarrassing to human intelligence to see paranoia replace facts.Happy Riding!

FWIW, I have degrees in science, business, and law. I have taught in the public school system (and found it to be highly ineffectual at its mandate because it is structured more like a money-oriented business enterprise than a place for genuine inquisitiveness or effective learning). I hope no one would ever think I'm anti-science or anti-factual. But after evaluating information from a wide variety of sources over the past 15 years on the subject of global temperatures, I am skeptical of the mainstream narrative. Enough data which contradicts that narrative exists to cast a substantial cloud of doubt over the claims and over the means by which those claims have been advanced.

 

[Rexlion]

I heard that it was because you guys didn’t rake the forest floor. Sorry, I know that its not funny.

Talking about smoke from fires... in parts of this continent, some hundreds of years ago the natives would intentionally set fire to a section of forest and let it burn as long as it could, for days or weeks. This was done to create new habitat for their meat hunting. The big trees don't allow sun to hit the ground so there is no undergrowth. Burning the trees allowed new growth of grasses and saplings which provided grazing for rabbits, deer, and whatnot for a short number of years. When the undergrowth started getting sparse they'd fire another swath of forest and move to that new location the next year. It was like crop rotation for them. Imagine all the smoke they created, though.

If we managed our forests better (more cutting, for one thing) we would not have so many wildfires.

 

[Roamers]

Suggest we give everyone on an assistance program and school kids off season rakes and pruners and send them to the forest.