Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 7, 2021

Experts want people to stop blaming space lasers as the cause of the wildfires raging in California an old conspiracy theory that seems to have popped up again on social media this week.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, on Wednesday tweeted that he was going to lose it if he kept hearing the conspiracy theory.

If I hear about space lasers as the cause of Californias wildfires one more time...I think Im gonna lose it, Swain wrote in a tweet that has garnered a lot of responses.

Thats still a thing?? one user responded.

Ohhh yes, wrote Swain.

The false theory received attention earlier this year when a report by Media Matters for America, a left-learning research outlet, showed that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., claimed in a now-delated Facebook post that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. started the devasting 2018 Camp Fire with space lasers in a failed clean-energy experiment.

Greene speculated that a range of people or groups were involved in the fire, including former California Gov. Jerry Brown, Pacific Gas & Electric and Rothschild Inc., an investment firm that is a frequent target of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories monitored by the Anti-Defamation League.

What actually sparked the Camp Fire, the states deadliest blaze, was PG&E electrical equipment. The company pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter and agreed to a $13.5 billion settlement with the victims of the fire.

This year, wildfire season arrived early in California, with most of the state in extreme or exceptional drought conditions. On Wednesday, the Dixie Fire swept through the town of Greenville in Plumas County ravaged its historic buildings, and by Thursday morning, it became the states sixth-largest blaze. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but space lasers are not suspected.

We do a fire investigation on every single wildfire within our jurisdiction. We send out a trained fire investigator to every single one to find the origin, as well as the cause of the fire, and the [space lasers] theory thats out there is not one that we have ever even mildly seen as a potential cause, said Daniel Berlant, assistant deputy director for Cal Fire.

Burning debris and equipment use, such as tractors and lawn mowers, are the most common ways that wildfires are sparked in California, said Berlant.

Fire causes are actually oftentimes people burning or cutting down vegetation to try to reduce the fire risk around their area, but theyre doing it in an unsafe manner or with the wrong tool, added Berlant.

Lightning can also spark wildfires, he said, although it is less common.

In a response to his original post, Swain tweeted that it was striking to see people either supporting the false space laser theory or suggesting new conspiracy theories.

Ive never understood why its so hard to believe that its just really easy to spark fires on a famously flammable landscape amid record drought... wrote Swain.

Berlant agreed. He said the state is seeing more severe wildfires due to a changing climate.

A drier California coupled with more people out in the wild land, he said, and that has led to the increase in severity of wildfires.

Jessica Flores is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jessica.flores@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jesssmflores

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No, California wildfires arent caused by space lasers, and experts want people to stop asking about it - San Francisco Chronicle

Category: Anti-Defamation League
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