DECEMBER 7, 2018, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
Opinion
Finland doesn’t rake
We were recently informed by
President Donald J. Trump, who far
too regularly comes up short of accu-
racy and eschews truth, that Finland
knows how to prevent forest fires.
Trump came out to share his opinion
on this subject and once again failed
to provide information
that would help with
the problem in Cali-
fornia—and elsewhere
among forests still stand-
ing—and the Americans
in them that are threat-
ened with annihilation
by conflagrations.
Regarding Finland, it
turns out that the prob-
lem is actually not enough wildfires.
In fact, from nature’s point of view,
the diversity of species and habitats
suffer when there are too few fires.
Our forest experts also know this to
be a fact but have ineffectively prac-
ticed it here.
But let’s get right to what Trump
advocated from what he didn’t get
straight about Finland. Stifling his
guffaws, Finnish President Sauli Nin-
isto came forward to inform Trump
and his never-questioning-him staff
that Finland’s strategy on wildfires
does not entail raking their forests
floors to prevent fires.
Ninisto informed one and all that
Finland does carry out controlled
burns of their forest floors to clear
away underbrush because that pro-
motes new growth of saplings. How-
ever, researchers are not at all sure Fin-
land’s approach can serve to instruct
California as parts of Finland are in-
side the Arctic Circle with prolonged
periods of rain and snow while our
neighbor to the south is into a new
normal: ongoing below average pre-
cipitation.
California’s susceptibility to fires
has a lot to do with its weather. Finn-
ish scientists expect their wildfires to
increase by 10 percent by 2100 but
estimates in California anticipate 80
percent at risk much sooner—2050.
Meanwhile, Finland’s advantage—be-
sides its hemispheric location—has
most to do with differences in infra-
structure and forest management. That
is, Finland has a far denser road net-
work which creates barri-
ers to blazes with lakes and
rives handy when blazes
do occur.
Finland was settled be-
fore North America was
extensively explored by
Europeans. Such a set-
tled condition meant that
medieval and industrial
revolution-era need for
wood turned forests into grasslands,
especially in southern Finland. Yet,
when the Finns went about refor-
estation in times closer to our own,
they split up future forests into small
compartments. One side effect was
fewer wildfires as blazes don’t spread
beyond a single compartment with
borders usually marked by wide paths
and trees of different heights.
Back here in California, Oregon,
Washington and wider, we know that
Trump withdrew us from the 2015
Paris Deal to combat climate change.
He has also rolled back Obama-era
environmental and climate protec-
tions in order to boost production of
domestic fossil fuels and has been an
enemy of renewables. Most recently
he said, “I don’t believe it,” in reac-
tion to the congressionally-mandated
climate change report through con-
tributions by more than 300 scientists
and let all of us know again that he’s
not interested in anything unless it can
contribute to more personal wealth.
There’s an old myth that read,
“Nero fiddled while Rome burned.”
A future after the current POTUS
will predictably proclaim, “Trump
made money while Earth burned.”
gene
h.
mcintyre
(Gene H. McIntyre shares his opin-
ion frequently in the Keizertimes.)
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Bush: sometimes things go right
By MICHAEL GERSON
All the talk about the attributes
of this or that generation is usually
overblown. But there is an exception
when a cohort of young Americans
shares a massive, overwhelming ex-
perience of depression or war. A cer-
tain view of their country is often
formed and fixed.
This can be said of John
F. Kennedy, the command-
ing officer of PT-109. And
Lt. Cmdr. Richard Nixon,
who ran the South Pacif-
ic Combat Air Transport
Command. And Navy
aviator George H.W. Bush. Serv-
ing in the Pacific theater of World
War II, these young men had few
traits of temperament or character in
common. But the war shaped their
conception of America’s global role,
and their view of the necessity and
capability of government in general.
People who fought in World War
II were marinated in the ideas that
evil is real and that American pow-
er is an essential, irreplaceable force
for good. They intuitively under-
stood the moral narrative of Munich,
Buchenwald, D-Day, Hiroshima,
NATO and the twilight struggle.
And they generally shared the no-
tion that America could do anything
that power, wealth, will and courage
could accomplish.
This presented the temptation of
overreach, as in Vietnam. JFK’s inau-
gural pledge to “pay any price, bear
any burden” should be taken serious-
ly, but not literally. But the children
of World War II really did believe
that a torch was passing from Dwight
Eisenhower’s generation—the gen-
eration of their commanding offi-
cers—to a group of Americans who
had rescued the world and fully in-
tended to lead it. Given the other
paths America might have taken, they
did an extraordinary job. They twice
saved humanity from well-armed,
aggressive, totalitarian ideologies—
irst as soldiers, sailors and airmen,
then as statesmen. America and the
world owe them a great deal.
Being one of the youngest Navy
pilots in World War II, and blessed
with longevity, George H.W. Bush
was among the last of his cohort to
leave us. As intelligence chief, dip-
lomat and president, he brought to
his calling a set of values that might
be called patrician. He was less New
Frontier and more old school. He
rose up in government on the im-
pulse of service. He lived by high
standards of decency, fair
play, humility, love of fam-
ily and love of country. He
was relentlessly moderate
in temperament and po-
litical instinct.
This type of “establish-
ment” code is easier to
lampoon than replace. So much that
a graceless age dismisses as repression
is actually politeness, compassion and
dignity.
And Bush’s moral sensibilities
turned out to be exactly what was
needed at a decisive historical mo-
ment. As the Soviet Union collapsed
under the weight of its economic
and moral failure, what was needed
from America was patience, wisdom,
steady purpose and the generosity
of true power. In presiding over the
breaking of nations, an excess of vi-
sion or ambition might have been
dangerously disruptive. Crowing
would have led to bitterness and un-
predictable anger. And Bush was in-
capable of crowing.
On closer exposure to Bush, there
was something more at work than a
moral code. I generally saw the el-
der Bush through the eyes of his son,
George W. Bush, for whom I worked.
other
voices
And he could hardly mention his fa-
ther’s name without welling up in
tears of affection. During George
W.’s first Republican National Con-
vention speech, we had to cut short
the section praising his father, be-
cause the son could not get through
the words without breaking down.
There was a sweetness to their rela-
tionship that is a tribute to both men.
George H.W. Bush loved deeply, and
was deeply loved. He was sentimental
without being fragile. And those who
saw weakness in his manner know
nothing about true strength—the
victory over ego, over impulse, over
hatred.
Dying can be cruel and unfair. But
there was a profound and encourag-
ing sense of rightness, of fittingness,
at Bush’s death. He left few things
unaccomplished, and none that mat-
tered. He was only briefly parted
from the love of his life. His strength
failed before his spirit. Bush died as
well as a man could manage—full
of years, full of honors, surrounded
by affection, confident in his faith,
knowing that his work on earth was
done.
Bush’s life provides assurance that
sometimes things go gloriously right.
Sometimes Americans vote for a de-
cent and honest leader. Sometimes
a president finds his calling and his
moment. Sometimes a good man
meets a good end.
And still. It is a sad and solemn
task to dig the graves of giants.
(Washington Post Writers Group)
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