Monday, September 14, 2020

The role of incentives in the CA fires

Here are three reasons that CA is experiencing horrendous fires. I presume that similar reasons operate in WA and OR. I also recognize that global warming makes fires more likely. In my opinion, global warming increases the importance of using controlled burns to reduce the chances of horrendous fires.

  1. Burn bosses don't suffer when they don't order controlled burns, but do suffer when a controlled burn gets out of hand.
  2. Public ownership of public lands means that no individual has a strong incentive to maintain the land.
  3. Command and control regulations often have unintended consequences and thwart attempts to perform controlled burns. 

No comments:

Post a Comment