For the last several years, I have watched as large portions of my State have caught on fire. Each year, I hear horror stories about friends and family being evacuated due to the threats of fire, sometimes to return to nothing there. Two of my college professors lost everything in the Station Fire in Los Angeles County.  Good friends nearly lost their home in Susanville several times over the last few months. My aunt has been evacuated 3 times in three years.  Friends who have attempted to flee the state in-part because of disastrous fire policy are still suffering from smoke issues across the country.  A friend in Michigan is having asthma problems because of smoke from California fires. It is truly heartbreaking.

Each time the fires destroy property and lives, Gavin Newsom is there for his photo opportunity, looking more like an Instagram influencer than a Governor.

CA’s inmate firefighter program is decades-old and has long needed reform.

Inmates who have stood on the frontlines, battling historic fires should not be denied the right to later become a professional firefighter.

Today, I signed #AB2147 that will fix that. pic.twitter.com/15GJ7Gijt7

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) September 11, 2020

Most recently, “candid” (see: staged) photos were taken of him chillin’ near the ashes and debris where someone’s house once stood.  Decked out like he was headed down the runway at a fashion event, perfectly manicured hands and sculpted hair, the governor likely didn’t have permission from those property owners nor were those property owners probably even yet allowed back by authorities to their destroyed property.  Either way, there he was, poppin’ a squat at someone’s picnic bench in the middle of all the destruction.  Gavin then got up to lecture us all on global warming and how it is to blame for all the problems California faces.

Let’s say that he is right.  Let’s say that global warming is a problem and it is going to continue to lead to disastrous fire seasons.  Let’s say that each year, those dangers will become worse and there’s little we can do about it. Sounds horrible, eh?  The next question is, “What are we supposed to do about it?”

What is Gavin’s solution?  Measures to combat climate change of course.  In Gavin’s pipe-dream of a future for California, he envisions a California that uses no fossil fuels and eliminates carbon output.  He wants the entire world to commit to these ideals, and blames everyone else and their lack of vision and action as to the problems that California faces.  After all, if everyone was off of fossil fuels (even though California is not) California would not have fires, or at the very least, the intensity of fires which we have been experiencing would be greatly reduced.

This is where Gavin Newsom lacks the vision; He lacks the wherewithal to be governor in the first place.  He lacks any sense of accountability or responsibility.  He couldn’t, for even a second, step back and say, “well, maybe we made some mistakes.” Gavin is, in a word, delusional and that delusion is going to lead to continued problems in California.

Let’s just pretend for a minute that the entire world all agrees with Gavin.  Let’s pretend that they all decide to help protect his fragile little legacy and they all agree to eliminate fossil fuels.  They completely commit to combating global warming.  Hell, let’s pretend that they all decide to put ten percent of the world’s GDP towards combating global warming. 8 Trillion dollars a year would dump into green initiatives and to sustainable, clean, and renewable energy. (For reference, the entire US Spending every year is 3.8 trillion.)

Therein lays the problem. Even if they were all committed to the process, it would be DECADES before we could get anywhere near to completing it.  In the meanwhile, California is catching fire every year and burning to the ground.  He completely ignores the fact that his means of combating the fires, requires that the other 99.5% of the world’s population having to agree to fundamentally alter their economies and their means of production to satisfy Gavin’s ego.  Not once during Gavin’s lectures did he ever offer another path, or perhaps even a supplementary path.  Gavin’s means of combating the fire problem in California is singular: Fight Global Warming.

Which means that in Gavin’s world, even if we all cooperated and agreed to fight global warming together as a people of the entire planet, California would still be destroyed by fire every year in perpetuity until we eventually reached a point where efforts *might* solve the problem (assuming that Global Warming is the only cause).

Nevermind that the entire time all that carbon dioxide and debris is being released into the atmosphere at the rate of nearly 100 million metric tons a year. (California releases 424 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year from EVERY OTHER SOURCE)  As the fear-mongering left wants to tell us, the problem is only going to get worse from here.  Fires will get worse and so it can only be assumed that the 100 million metric tons of carbon dioxide will get worse as well.

Gavin, despite this knowledge, still holds onto the hope that the world will save his legacy.  Not once, during his pedantic lectures on climate change, does he ever accept a modicum of responsibility. Never is there any suggestion of even the possibility that the last several decades of forestry policy is to blame.  Never does he suggest there may be other ways of even helping to solve the problem.  Nope, we all have to “tighten our carbon belts” to save Gavin’s legacy.  No discussion of supplementing our efforts with changes to forestry policy.  Nope, because to do that we would have to admit we let wacko environmentalists turn this state into a tinder box.  Let’s ignore the continued death and destruction.  They are just sacrifices at the altar of the left’s vision for California.  No blended approach, no alternative considerations, no plan B’s.  Just Gavin, and the radical left, leading California down the smoky, ash-covered path to eventual doom.

It is time for Gavin to grow up.  Stop thinking about what Californians want to hear or what you think they might want to see.  Enough with being concerned about optics and time to be more concerned with the lives and property in this state.  No more selfies.  No more “candid” shots.  Give us actual, actionable, concrete policy changes you think will fix this problem.  Might I suggest you start with forestry policy?