Another holiday, another excuse for the Cult of Climastrology to scare monger and be apoplectic, as the Sacramento Bee editorial board has a meltdown (sic)
California is burning. Maybe it’s time to ban fireworks on the Fourth of July
It has become a kind of July tradition: Counting the ways in which California’s fire season is now more dangerous.
Every summer around this time, the red flags grow redder: the dry air, the triple-digit heat, the dying trees in the wilderness, the chaparral rattling in the foothills. Every summer around this time, some fiery apocalypse erupts somewhere in the state as if to drive home the message.
And yet every summer around this time, Californians respond the same way: Surrounded by fire hazards, we set off a bunch of fireworks.
Not to dampen patriotic enthusiasm as Independence Day approaches, but isn’t it time this state brought its July 4 observances into the climate-changed 21st century?
If there was only something that could be done in a state that was traditionally rather dry, like, I don’t know, allowing dried brush to be cleared making it less of a fire hazard?
Fire risk, by the way, isn’t the only drawback. In the Central Valley, where the topography can render the air stagnant, July 4 fireworks routinely cause particle pollution to spike to four or five times the federal health standards. Emergency rooms fill with the victims of illegal fireworks explosions. Pets suffer terribly from the noise, and because fireworks are a form of hazardous waste, disposal is expensive.
It’s time to align California’s laws with the modern costs and benefits of celebrations that involve explosives. If we can’t bring ourselves to ban fireworks entirely during our now nearly year-round fire season, we should at least outlaw them during the times of year and/or weather conditions in which they’re especially hazardous.
Of course, we need some Nanny State to make everything OK.
Who’s going to clear 160,000+ sq miles of dry brush?
Most metro area city and counties already have personal fireworks bans, but this time every year the laws are ignored by people and police alike. Should the police enforce these laws or are they right in using “discretion” in ignoring the violations?
Over 10,000 Americans end up in the emergency room each year from fireworks.
“Fire risk, by the way, isn’t the only drawback. In the Central Valley, where the topography can render the air stagnant, July 4 fireworks routinely cause particle pollution to spike to four or five times the federal health standards. Emergency rooms fill with the victims of illegal fireworks explosions. ”
wow, so we go from firework displays causing air pollution (which is gov’t-sponsored and gov’t-held events) to illegal personal use causing emergency room visits.
One doesn’t have anything to do with the other, but nice trying to link them together.
“Sometimes people drive the speed limit down the highway. And emergency rooms are full of people illegally using drugs. We need to do something about that excessive highway speed”
I am OK with communities doing fire risk assessments and deciding their area is too dry to allow fireworks or even to regulate them out of existence. Virginia does this. There is a tradeoff between the fire risk and government bureaucrats being safety Nazis. Most people accept the first. Most people reject the second. The difference is a law making all fireworks illegal versus an public announcement year to year, tailored by area for the specific risks in that area.
Fireworks are by their very nature an increased fire risk, hence the name FIRE works. But then so is indoor cooking, fireplaces, and smoking cigarettes. It is a perfectly acceptable sphere of discussion between reasonable people to decide how much of each they are willing to accept in light of the risks and the cost of mitigation.