8/21/2023

JRB,

            Let’s hold folks in So Cal in the Light as they deal with Hurricane Hillary.

            I see you were up at 4 AM to fly to HI. I feel you. I got up at 3 AM to catch the Women’s World Cup. It was fun to see Spain win, but disappointing to see video of Luis Rubiales, Pres of Spain’s soccer federation, grabbing Jennifer Hermoso’s (JHF) face & kissing her lips. The NYT called it “the talk of social media.” Rather than being heralded for her superior play, JHF is being cast as a victim of sexual harassment. Macho bullshit eclipses women power once again.

            I have some new initials for us - WUI. That stands for Wild Urban Interface – the edge of cities & towns where wildfires become urban fires. You are staying in a WUI in Glenbrook Bay where you may notice the landscape is sparse. This assumes they are following the recommendation of the Tahoe Fire & Fuels Team (TFFT) to create “defensible space” by eliminating all flammable vegetation around the house. The TFFT involves 21 federal, tribal, state, & local conservation, land management & fire agencies trying to prevent the kind of thing that happened in Lahaina. Coordinating that many agencies is one of the huge challenges for fire professionals & may have complicated the situation in HI.

            Hawaii’s fire danger is radically different from ours. Their issue is invasive non-native grasses adapted for fire in an ecosystem which never had fires up until recently. They need different strategies. I encourage you to support federal efforts that focus on the future rather than the past. We don’t need an agency performing comprehensive reviews following disasters, as the House has authorized, instead we need more coordination efforts like TFFT.

            I’m upset from reading about cluster bombs in Ukraine & seeing that a Swiss filmmaker & 13 Burmese actors have been detained by the junta. Alas, I have used up my 2000 characters so may write about those concerns tomorrow.

            BYBS,