1/8/2022

Jan 8, 2022

MDFP, JRB,

            I have 11 minutes to write this letter. I am off to hike in Napa Valley with a Friend. He’s about 10 years older than me, but he is in much better hiking condition. He makes it a habit to go on major backpacking trips so I invited him to join me today. I want to test my capacity before I go on my trip to Guadalupe Peak which is a “8.5 mile round trip hike with a 3,000 foot elevation gain. I I used to be able to do that kind of hike without a worry, but that was then, & this is now.

            Your remarks from your visit to Boulder Co yesterday will resonate with me today. I will be seeing plenty of evidence that, “We can’t ignore the reality that these fires are being supercharged. They’re being supercharged by changing weather.” According to Francsis Wilkinsone writing in Bloomberg’s, Napa Valley is on the “avant garde of climate stress” having suffered numerous fires in the last 6 years. The “Diablo winds have gotten hotter and more sinister” & the infernos not only burn large swathes of land, their smoke taints the grapes, which ruined most of the wine of that year.

            This has people studying the chemistry of smoke so that the $3.4 billion wine industry can survive the new normal. I was encouraged to read in today’s Guardian that Rep Joe Neguse of Boulder Co, co-chairs the bipartisan Wildfire Caucus & is co-sponsoring the The Western Wildfire Support Act, with Sen Catherine Cortez Masto of NV to create fire prevention, management and recovery plans for federal land across the western US. Please help them get thispassed.

            Folks of Napa Valley are on high alert about fire & many in the community are motivated to overcome their differences to figure out a path forward. That’s the attitude that we all need to adopt.

            Please pray for Myanmar,

            Note – this letter was written in 15 minutes so now I’m running late.

            BYBS,