Thanks Kamala incidentally.
She should be congratulated for helping prisoners learn vital skills that might help them in post-imprisonment employment, obviously.Thanks Kamala incidentally.
E&E News: Kamala Harris and her connection to inmate firefighters
<p>As California attorney general, Kamala Harris led a team that fought to keep more people imprisoned so they could fight wildfires. She said later that she was unaware of the effort.</p>www.eenews.net
Blech.Thanks Kamala incidentally.
E&E News: Kamala Harris and her connection to inmate firefighters
<p>As California attorney general, Kamala Harris led a team that fought to keep more people imprisoned so they could fight wildfires. She said later that she was unaware of the effort.</p>
Nope...
He was kidding dude.Nope...
The prisoners who work at fire camps often find that they’re unable to put their skills to use when they’re released. The majority of firefighting jobs in the U.S., and most of the 900 fire departments in California, require employees to obtain an Emergency Medical Technician or paramedic license. In California, the majority of convicted felons can’t obtain those licenses until they’ve been out of prison for 10 years.
....
The prisoners earn between $2.90 and $5.12 per day, plus an additional $1 per hour during active emergency for their potentially life-threatening efforts. The firefighters they work alongside earn an average of $91,000 each year before overtime pay and bonuses.
The Conservation Camp Program, officially established in 1945, is estimated to save California taxpayers about $100 million each year. Prisoners work on hand crews, constructing firebreaks by using tools like chainsaws and picks. During active fires, they work for 24-hour periods followed by 24 hours of rest.
While the pay is low, there are other perks and incentives for the more than 3,000 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation prisoners who volunteer to work in the 43 fire camps around the state (that number is higher than active firefighters because other inmates stay back and care for the camps). During active fires they earn about $27 each day, much better than other prison jobs that would earn them $0.08 to $0.37 per hour. They also have fresher food, more freedom and, perhaps most importantly, receive two days off their prison sentence for every one day served (commonly known as 2-for-1).
....
More than 1,000 inmate firefighters were sent to the hospital between 2013 and 2018, according to data obtained by TIME. Incarcerated firefighters were four times more likely to suffer from object-related injuries like cuts and broken bones than other firefighters and eight times more likely to suffer from smoke and particulate inhalation than other firefighters.
There is no available data on whether prisoners suffer from smoke-inhalation related heart disease and cancers at elevated rates as other firefighters do in the years after their service, but unlike their unincarcerated coworkers, inmate firefighters do not receive extended health benefits or pensions upon retirement.
Prison Inmates Are Fighting California's Wildfires for About $3 a Day
Inmates save the state about $100 million each year by putting their lives on the line to fight fires, but see little return when they leave prison.fortune.com
I would imagine it's because fires start in remote areas and don't become noticed until they're massive affairs, California being a big state (third largest iirc, bigger than Germany for sure). Not to mention something like a third of California's firefighters are inmates, and you aren't going to be spotting any fires in prison.
I'd think that with all the technology we have these days, early detection of fires wouldn't be such a big problem.
Well for example the 2018 Campfire wasn't noticed until it was already 10 acres of burning land, and it was in a remote mountain area. A little over an hour later it was already burning the town of Paradise 8 miles away, there wasn't time to get the fire under control, just because nothing big enough to stop it moves that fast.
They often start in remote wilderness areas which are difficult to access and dumping water from plains and helicopters isn't always precise, especially with winds, and during fire season it's extremely dry with high winds being quite common (the Santa Ana winds) which cause the fires to spread extremely quickly.
Now ask yourself what that technology would look like. What goes into it. What infrastructure it requires. It's a lot harder than it sounds.
Obviously it would be hard, but this seems to happen literally every year. Drastic measure are taken to prepare for other natural disasters, even ones we're not sure will happen. Why not for forest fires? I assume there's some shitty political/business reason.
It's a mix of reasons. Not helping is the fact that climate change is accelerating, making it even harder to keep up. The fact that Trump withheld federal aid from California this year for not voting for him in 2016 is probably the most egregious.
It's not an "issue" in California, it's part of the ecosystem. The state's a split between dry shrub land dependent on fire for seasonal regeneration, and coniferous forest dependent on fire for seasonal regeneration. Fires are supposed to happen there, to clear dead and decaying plant matter, fertilize the soil, allow seeds to spread, and new plants to grow in the old and dead plants' place.
Pennsylvania isn't a big cyclical burning state based on climate. We aren't the California desert. But the fetishism for forests is as old as the state's name. As a consequence of this, there essentially aren't prairies in the state anymore. All wild spaces are forest. There's a species called the regal fritillary butterfly that has basically ceased to exist in the state outside of an army base, where military drills kept spaces clear of forest and now they do controlled burns specifically to maintain the space for the butterflies.
Yeah, the Amazon rainforest's another thing in this world that's looking thoroughly boned. But look on the bright side: Brazilian ranchers can make some more money.
What is up with this forum and sarcastic wit, it's grating. Overbearing, even. Europe slashed and burned its forests a long time ago, I don't understand why outsiders ought to attack Brazilians for doing the same. I wouldn't even mind it if people were consistent and those complaining about it weren't eating meat themselves. Do you eat beef?
We slashed and burned our forests before we realised how important they were. The aim should be to learn from past mistakes, not make them again under the rationale it's okay because someone else screwed up earlier. For the same reason, we might implore many countries to skip things like coal-fired power stations and go straight to renewables, or at least if they absolutely most use a fossil fuel, natural gas.
Not from Brazil.
