kolibri282
Super Member
It's impressive to see the venerable Sky Crane, a helicopter that first flew almost 6 decades ago, lending a hand in fighting the massive California fires which so starkly tell of climate change. But as we admire the engineering ingenuity of those designers from the days of yore one also wonders why recourse has to be taken to an aircraft that is about twice the age of her pilots to combat the threats of the 21st century and seen from this side of the Atlantic one is even more surprised to learn that power has been curbed to almost a million people for fear of starting more and more fires. In Europe, for almost a century now, only the high power transmission lines are (very high) above the ground and nearly all medium and lower voltage power lines are buried several feet deep. Perhaps this system of power lines haphazardly strung along wooden poles, that one rather links to third world (rat hole) countries, is a tribute to a privatized economy where the power companies prefer to pay dividends to shareholders over investing in secure networks.
https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9441247/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2048x1152+0+0/resize/840x473!/quality/90/?url=https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/e0/53/23bedb0b894284e205316b8da674/la-1499563904-m55uab2io3-snap-image
https://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub...f9e9ed8f8/california-wildfires-1175341969.jpg
https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9441247/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2048x1152+0+0/resize/840x473!/quality/90/?url=https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/e0/53/23bedb0b894284e205316b8da674/la-1499563904-m55uab2io3-snap-image
https://cbsnews2.cbsistatic.com/hub...f9e9ed8f8/california-wildfires-1175341969.jpg
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