"Wildfires are a force of nature. We prevent fires from happening naturally. So when they do happen, they are more catastrophic."

Myths predict three ways that the world might end - fire, water, or ice. So far, fire seems to be the most likely here in the West. However, water may soon be just as deadly to coastal dwellings, as the polar caps and glaciers melt.

"Big fire, big water," Capt. Ray Gatchalian of the Oakland Fire Department observes.
"Little fire, little water." But the problem is that we are having "Big fire, little water."

The Ogallala aquifer is the largest discrete aquifer, source of groundwater, in the world. It lies beneath parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, Wyoming, Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma, some of the States that are now burning. It is also the fastest disappearing aquifer in the world. The rate of withdrawal exceeds natural replenishment. This region was once called the Dust Bowl and was devastated by the Great Drought.

Parts of the areas now being burned used to be called the Great American Desert. Then the waters of the Colorado and other rivers were harnessed to

irrigate farms and fuel development in arid areas like Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix. But the surface water supplies of these rivers and the underground water of the giant Ogallala aquifer are not inexhaustible.

The water table is lowering because humans use that water for cooling machines, irrigating factory farms, flush toilets, watering lawns, and a variety of needs. As the vegetation gets drier, a source of ignition can quickly explode into a giant fire, which wind gusts can then drive. The mixture of hot weather, bone-dry trees, and blowing winds is a recipe for an inferno.