I have visited this topic about forest/open heathland fires, the positive externalities of private property ownership, Tragedy of the Commons and the unintended consequences of Green not-so-benign neglect before (remember those bad fires in Australia?) before, but here’s a reminder, given recent fires in Spain, France, Greece and my native Suffolk in the UK:

Wall Street Journal:

Under its Green Deal and related policies, the European Union is designating 30% of the continent as nature-protected by 2030. Goals include increasing the amount of deadwood and the density of tree cover in forests. Whatever their environmental merit, such measures increase the amount of highly flammable fuel for fires, make it easier for blazes to spread and harder to extinguish.

The EU also wants at least a third of this protected land to fall under “strict protection,” which means it will be left “essentially undisturbed from human pressures and threats,” according to European Commission guidance. It allows for some natural disaster prevention measures, but only “when such activities are compatible with the conservation objectives of the areas on the basis of a case-by-case assessment,” the guidance says.

Ranchers and farmers in Spain and France have historically managed their land to mitigate the risk of megafires. But the EU’s regulations have made it harder for small farms to survive across Europe, accelerating a rural exodus. Red tape often hinders those who remain from carrying out preventive actions like controlled burns.

The European Forest Fire Information System publishes maps and data, updated daily, on the current blazes. They show considerable overlap between the protected nature areas in Spain and France and the wildfires. That suggests in addition to the vagaries of weather, a policy failure.

Blaming climate change is the default explanation these days for any natural disaster, but Europe’s costly solutions will make little difference to global temperatures. Better forest management and fire prevention can make a difference, however. And they would reduce the CO2 emissions from fires that now overwhelm much of the reduction from electric vehicles or other climate nostrums.

Some advocates of “rewilding” claim that fires are part of nature, and that over time, fires will trigger a response in the form, for example, of more fire-resistant species (also, certain seeds are only germinated once a fire has happened). That sounds plausible, but the problem is that in a densely populated part of the world, such as the UK southeast, people want the loveliness of nature but without a raging fire nearby, however “natural” that is. And it is worth remembering that even if you take out the Man-made global warming argument and accept that fires are part of nature – they are – that much of our visually attractive landscape is not the result of Man leaving nature alone, but of crafting and caring for it. (This all makes sense once, like good students of Aristotle, we recognise that Man is as much part of nature as a beetle, shark or buzzard).

In the meantime, I am doing the very non-atheist thing and praying for rain.

AND? U. Tampa English professor claims Trump’s words contribute to declining support for trans rights.

#RESIST: NYC to unveil new Columbus statue as group sidesteps Mamdani’s middle finger.

A new nonprofit is planning to unveil a Christopher Columbus statue in Brooklyn this October — dodging Mayor Zohran Mamdani and other haters who’d rather cancel the Italian-born explorer.

The Preserving Italian Heritage Coalition, brought together by Chinese-American state Assemblyman Lester Chang (R-Brooklyn), is planning to house the statue at the John Hughes Club in Dyker Heights, private property that keeps it out of the clutches of city officials.

“I’m Chinese, but this is my community, too,” said Chang, who was born on Eldridge Street in Manhattan and today represents Bensonhurst and Dyker Heights. The coalition is now looking to raise $100,000 to cover construction and maintenance costs.

Chang traces the idea to last November’s election and to President Trump’s Columbus Day proclamation weeks earlier, which vowed to reclaim the explorer from “left-wing arsonists.” He wrote the committee’s first check himself, before there was a bank account to put it in.

Now that’s what I call assimilation.