Putting climate above true conservation efforts has ruinous effects on people and the environment. Assigning blame to climate change, instead of root causes of natural disasters, has put states like California in a precarious position.
“California…has gone all in on the Garden of Eden Syndrome, with policies designed to restore the state to pre-human settlement,” Climate Depot publisher Marc Morano said in a recent Fox News appearance. He’s absolutely correct.
California subscribes to environmental thinking that calls for restoring nature to pre-human settlement through “rewilding.” Rewilding, for instance, discourages forest management and encourages wrongheaded policies like dam breaching and closing public lands to multiple-uses under the 30-by-30 initiative. Add climate change posturing into the mix, and it’s a recipe for disaster. Billions of dollars are wasted annually, people are displaced from their homes, and nature is adversely impacted. Rinse and repeat.
My home state has long been captured by net-zero climate policies. Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is a self-described climate champion. Climate posturing is omnipresent in his press statements, social media posts, state government website, and executive orders. Newsom’s zealous dedication to climate policy is encapsulated in his 2022 California Climate Commitment: New, World-Leading Climate Action Plan.
“Forging an oil-free future and accelerating the transition away from big polluters, Governor Newsom is committing to the most robust, comprehensive climate action in history – the California Climate Commitment invests $54 billion to fight climate change and enacts new world-leading measures that’ll cut pollution, deploy clean energy and new technologies, and protect Californians from harmful oil drilling,” the action plan explains.
The document claimed it would also “protect Californians from extreme heat, wildfires, and drought.” Yet high-intensity wildfires - which are easily preventable - still persist. And no new reservoirs have been built in the Golden State, despite the voters approving a 2014 bond measure to address water needs..
In wake of the devastating Los Angeles fires breaking out, Newsom went on the progressive Pod Save America show. Then he had the audacity to publish a fact-checking page - on his campaign website, no less - about wildfire causes. It’s intentionally done to deflect from his incompetence–including a move that gutted $100 million from California’s fire budget. Ironically but unsurprisingly, carbon emissions have increased in climate-conscious California due Gavin Newsom’s mismanagement.
Los Angeles County is no innocent party either. It follows the same Sacramento climate playbook that is guided by rewilding, too.
The most populous California county adopted the Los Angeles County 2045 Climate Action Plan (2045 CAP) last June. This plan prioritizes what it calls “equitable climate action,” noting, “The level of planning, policy change, and investment needed to implement the 2045 CAP actions creates an opportunity for the County to integrate equity in ways that help reverse the trends of discrimination and disinvestment.”
No wonder why officials in L.A. are asleep at the wheel. Equity is more important than fire prevention and water management.
Not only is there a shoddy fire management response, the county was ill-prepared to deploy water resources to fight these raging fires. A report found that a key reservoir was emptied just before the wildfires broke out. Blame is rightfully being directed at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) CEO Janisse Quiñones.
“Those tanks help with the pressure on the fire hydrants in the hills of Palisades, and because we were pushing so much water in our trunk line, and so much water was being used before it can get to the tanks - we were not able to fill the tanks fast enough,” she explained during a press conference. “So the consumption of water was faster than we can provide water in our trunk line,' she continued, adding that there is water in the truck line, but it 'cannot get up the hill because we cannot fill the tanks fast enough.”
Quiñones was pressed further about empty hydrants and said, “We, um, we were trying to keep water at all altitudes on the Palisades, and I think about three in the morning, that's when - uh - the hydrants went dry above the Brentwood area.”
She was hired in May and makes a $750,000 annual salary. Make of it what you will.
I’ll never forget seeing imagery from California of aluminum blankets hugging ancient sequoia trees - including Grand Sherman - at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park during the 2021 KNP Complex fire. Refusal to do controlled burns and mechanical thinning almost put these iconic trees at serious risk. Adding insult to injury, environmentalists filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service (NPS) at these aforementioned national parks, citing the agency’s plans to replant trees, carry out timber harvests, and conduct prescribed burns, in December 2023.
This is Garden of Eden Syndrome and rewilding in action: Environmentalists, ultimately, proven to be nature’s worst defenders.
“California’s progressive leadership has positioned itself at the forefront of climate change policy, championing emissions reductions and denouncing climate scepticism. Yet when faced with the practical requirements of climate change preparedness, whether conducting controlled burns, maintaining water infrastructure, or restricting development in fire-prone areas—they have proven to be inept,” writes Quillette’s Claire Lehmann. “They appear more comfortable with grand pronouncements about global challenges than with the unglamorous work of preparing their own communities for climate realities they themselves warn about.
Let’s clear the air: climate policies are regressive and an obstacle to achieving lasting environmental progress. California is a case study in what not to do.