As I was riding in to work the last couple of mornings, I noticed a distinct smoky tang to the air. We've been covered, lately, by a blanket of smoke from the wildfires in Oregon and California. One of my coworkers mentioned the haze seen out the office windows, and it got me to thinking.
Every year, the BLM and Forest Service (and probably other agencies) spend billions on fighting wildfires in this country. I hate to be a conspiracy theorist of any sort, but whenever there's this much money to be spent/made, someone has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
With the ability we have to deliver a JDAM strike halfway around the world on a particular building (with some modicum of accuracy), why can't we drop a fire suppression bomb (how tough can it be to design something that explodes over a wide area with a half ton of fire suppression chemical?) within minutes on a wildfire? Certainly it couldn't cost all that much more to use our network of satellites or some retired AWACS planes to watch for lightning strikes or other hot spots in our federal lands, and to have a fleet of fire suppression bombers (again, get some retired B52s or something) in the air during fire season.
The up front cost might still be about the same, but the damage costs ought to be significantly reduced. Isn't an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure any more?
Every year, the BLM and Forest Service (and probably other agencies) spend billions on fighting wildfires in this country. I hate to be a conspiracy theorist of any sort, but whenever there's this much money to be spent/made, someone has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
With the ability we have to deliver a JDAM strike halfway around the world on a particular building (with some modicum of accuracy), why can't we drop a fire suppression bomb (how tough can it be to design something that explodes over a wide area with a half ton of fire suppression chemical?) within minutes on a wildfire? Certainly it couldn't cost all that much more to use our network of satellites or some retired AWACS planes to watch for lightning strikes or other hot spots in our federal lands, and to have a fleet of fire suppression bombers (again, get some retired B52s or something) in the air during fire season.
The up front cost might still be about the same, but the damage costs ought to be significantly reduced. Isn't an ounce of prevention worth a pound of cure any more?
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