California is an exporter of ideas, with Silicon Valley and Hollywood being the two most prolific examples. But the recent wildfires throughout the state are exporting another concept — smoke plumes that reach from coast to coast. Similar to the dust plumes of the 1930s Dust Bowl that brought people into the state, today’s smoke plumes are motivating people to pick up and leave now.
The easy explanation for the fires, and the one on the tips of the tongues of most elected officials in the state, is climate change. While there is truth to a changing climate’s effects in causing the fires, from longer dry seasons to higher temperatures, what gets overlooked is the practices employed by government departments responsible for managing forests and other public lands. (Similarly, it was a combination of government policy and climate catastrophe that led to the Dust Bowl.) A decades-long policy of fire suppression has led to piles of forest material — pinecones and needles,
