January 22, 2025 • 29 mins
Taking Ownership PDX is working to stop gentrification in Portland. Red Cross volunteers are helping survivors of the southern California wildfires. Oregon has a new Wildfire Hazards Map. OSU research finds connections between climate change and wildfires.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. There's an organization
in Portland fighting gentrification that needs your help. Local Red
Cross volunteers are working in California to help survivors of
the wildfires, and the Oregon Department of Forest Free has
released a new version of the wildfire hazard maps. We'll
tell you what it means for property owners. There's an
(00:26):
organization in Portland fighting gentrification. It's called Taking Ownership PDX
and the founder and executive director is Randall Wyatt. Randall,
How did Taking Ownership PDX start and what does it do?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Taking Ownership PDX is a community based organization. We repair
and renovate black owned homes. We're prioritizing the black community
right now, and we hope to also get into other
communities in the future. But right now we're prioritizing the
black community and we repair and renovatum free to the homeowner.
We also provide financial assistance to black owned small business
(01:00):
is in the Portland metro area. How I got into this, Well,
the idea kind of came from my studies at Portland
State University. I got a degree in social science with
a double minor and Black studies and sociology. So I
was studying, you know, white supremacy and the plight of
African Americans and society in general, and it just kind
(01:20):
of hit me that white supremacy is kind of predicated
on land ownership, taking land, keeping land, excluding non white
populations from from getting land because that's the fastest way
to build wealth and pass it on to generations. And
it kind of just figured out how some of the
ways that they were gentrifying areas and displacing black homeowners
(01:42):
from the communities that they had you know, established roots in.
And so once figuring that out, I figured out one
of those ways was through deferred maintenance and seasonal maintenance.
And how when those areas become gentrified and affluent people
move into those communities, they start to complain about the
maintenance of their black and brown neighbors, and then that
(02:03):
leads to fines and leans and vulnerability to basic predatory
developers and real estate professionals. So I thought, well, one
way we can maybe you know, deter this process and
fight back, would keep their homes maintained, provide deferred maintenance
and repairs and seasonal maintenance for these homeowners so that
(02:24):
they're not vulnerable anymore or as vulnerable at least.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
One of the things that taking Ownership PDX works against
is gentrification.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Explain what that is gentrification.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
That's a tough one for me to explain sometimes, but
it's you know, it starts with usually a community that
hasn't been invested in, like for in particular in this
in Portland, it's Albina, right, the Albina community where black
people were redlined and forced to live into these communities,
and then they weren't able to get any loans for
(02:55):
keeping up with their homes or or to even sometimes
you know, or buy home in other areas. So these
communities had to kind of fend for themselves. And then
it becomes kind of the path of least resistance when
they decide they want to develop or these areas or
do urban development. So they come in and then they
start investing in the community, but they're not investing into
(03:16):
the people that actually lived in those communities. They're they're
making it now appealing to other populations to move into them.
And then when that happens, there's usually a wealth disparity,
which leads to are raised in the cost of living,
which leads to the people that were originally in those
communities having to move out of them.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Because they keep up live exactly.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
So you know, yeah, when the when the big old
you know, condos start coming in and and you know,
it just starts making it very challenging. And then you
have people, you know, with they have predatory practices. They
come in and they actually do things like urban blight
where they're like, oh, your stairs aren't aren't up the
code or something, and they start hitting me with and
(04:00):
things like that. So they always have they have other
tactics and ways to dupe homeowners out of selling their
homes under market. And then they do that and they
can't afford to buy anything else in that community because
the costume living went up so much. And then that's
that's my best way of explaining sure grification.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
You talked about redlining, Why don't you talk a little
bit about Portland's real estate and banking history and what
that has done well.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I will say I'm not an expert in that in
that area, but I would say, you know, for a
long time and a lot of the banks they wouldn't
provide loans to this is the area I work in.
They wouldn't provide loans to for homeowners to keep up
with their maintenance and repairs, and there's already a wealth gap,
so they find themselves in a position where they can't
(04:47):
keep their homes maintained and and it just leaves no
vulnerable to getting leans and fines put on their homes
due to code issues. And that's how people can come
in and swoop in and be like, I noticed you
have a whole a lot of leans in your house,
and I'll offer you this amount of money to take
to take your home. And then there's you know, redlining
(05:08):
where they wouldn't provide any kind of loans or you know, mortgages,
so they can buy homes wherever they wanted to buy them.
They would only say in this area, or they would
tell other, you know, populations, this is an undesirable area,
so you can't move here, you know, things like that.
So and then there's there's the optional arm loans and
the subprime loans that you know that we know very
(05:29):
well about two thousand and eight because that hit everybody then.
But they were going after black and brown populations in
the eighties and nineties with those type of loans that
the rate keeps going up and up and then eventually
you can't afford to pay your mortgage, right, and that
was stripping equity from from homes. And yeah, so those
are just some of the practices from the banks and
(05:49):
real estate professionals.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So tell us a little bit more about how taking
Ownership PDX works.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Sure, we have three programs.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
So we have our Home Improvement program, so we raise
money and we hire vendors and contractors to come out
and perform the services that the homeowners request. We also
do like home energy assessments through our partnership with Energy
Trust of Organs, so we can provide renewable energy resources
that oftentimes marginalized communities get left out of. And they're
(06:19):
also the most impacted communities by climate change, so we're
trying to get into that field too. Within that program.
And then we have our Community Impact program, which is
more based around our volunteers, so they come out and
do the seasonal maintenance, the stuff that you don't need
a license, bonded and ensured contractor for. They'll come out,
you know, clean up a yard, do some basic landscaping,
(06:40):
declutter a house. And the majority of our homeowners are
senior citizens, so and so you know, they need a
lot of support. I'm thirty nine years old and I
just became a homeowner not that long ago.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
It's a lot of work. It's tough.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I can't imagine, you know, not having the physical ability
to get around your house. So it's a very impactful
program to keep their homes you know, seasonally maintained. And
it also alleviates and prevents a lot of those leans
and finds that I was telling you about, because it
takes care of a lot of the aesthetic parts of
the home.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
And then we have our.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Small Business Financial Assistance Program and there we provide small,
small you know, grants for business owners. Right now, we
have a partnership with dev Northwest, which is an IDA program,
and they go through that program and we provide the
initial twelve hundred dollars to put into their IDA account.
Once they finish the program with dev Northwest, they get
(07:39):
that match times five and get a good chunk of
change to play with.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
So since you started the program, how many homes have
you worked on? How many homes have you helped?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, we started back in mid twenty twenty, so around
like May or June, and since then we've served probably
about one hundred and fifty homeowners and we you know,
we've come back and helped. So we've done a number
of projects because you know, especially the seasonal maintenance, we
got to come back and do that. But yeah, we've
helped around there. Yeah, various repairs.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
And one thing you mentioned that you touched on this
a little bit earlier, but what's the average income of
the homeowners that you're helping.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
So we're serving one hundred and twenty percent AMI and
below most are below eighty percent am I. Like I said,
most of our homeowners are our elders, and a lot
of them are on fixed Social security. I mean, so
I would say it's hard to put an average together.
I'd probably say in less than forty thousand.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, sure, easily, especially I see that a lot somebody
on social Security.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Oh yeah, how do you raise money? How does the
organization raise money? We write a ton of grants.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, we started out though, like the community has really
showed up for us. Our first one point three million
was mostly like just private donations for community, and that
was in like the first couple of years, you know,
and now we're starting to get some big old grants
and stuff. We just got a two point five million
dollars grant from the eighteen oh three fund, which is
(09:10):
phil Knights Foundation, and so mostly mostly that, and there's
just writing grants and and we still get a lot
of donations from the community.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
It's really well supported.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
What about project sponsorships? Are you're looking for for sponsors
of certain projects or large large Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Either donors or organizations to help.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Absolutely, We're always looking for for sponsorships and donations from companies, organizations, whoever.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
We have like.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
A cool sponsorship portion of our community Impact program where
you know, if a company wants their staff to come
out and volunteer and uh, you know, because these volunteer
projects they're not free for us to.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Right together, so we ask for you know, like a.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Gift and and then you come out and and you
can help a homeowner in the community and you know,
get your photo ops and uh yeah, yeah, it's a
win for everybody. Exactly. Do you need volunteers, I wouldn't
say we need them. We have over five hundred signed up. Yeah,
but I encourage it because I mean it's just a
great way to get into your community. The projects are
(10:15):
are always like great networking. It's like like minded people
there I'm just I've heard overwhelmingly, you know, positive reviews
about these projects. And I have a great Jed Overly
as our director. He's great about running that program. So
I always encourage people to do it and come out,
and you know, it just gives you a chance to
(10:36):
actually get your hands dirty and really do some tangible
you know, giving back.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Exactly, giving back to the community. Yeah. So if people
want to learn more how do they do the work?
Is there a website they can.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Go to Absolutely taking Ownership pdx dot org. You can
go there and you can help in a number of ways.
You can donate, of course, that's always great. Money goes
a long way. You can sign up to be a volunteer.
You can get if you like a company, organization, or
you know somebody. You can get onto our community resource list,
which is great to get some exposure for your business,
(11:08):
but also it shows us who in the community is
you know, in support of our mission. And we hire
you know a lot of people, We hire vendors and
sure contractors all the time, so it's always good to
see who's out there and what resources out there. And
then you know, we have merchandise and we have a
pretty good amount of merchandise, so please help me get
that out of my garage and yeah, you know, spread
(11:32):
the word.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, terrific. White. Thank you very much for joining us
on local voices. I appreciate that my pleasure. Thanks for
having me.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
That's Randall Wyatt, founder and executive director of Taking Ownership
PDX again. Their website is Taking Ownership pdx dot org.
The Red Cross is helping survivors of the California wildfires.
Many volunteers from the Northwest are part of the effort.
Rebecca Marshall with the Red Cross Cascades Ragon joins us
(11:59):
on Local Voices. Rebecca how many local volunteers are part
of the effort.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
At last check we had eighteen and that has climbed
over the past seven days. I expected, I'll climb a
little bit more and then, you know, then our operations
shift a little bit. So to give you sort of
an idea, right now, we're in the sheltering business. It's sheltering,
it's feeding. It's reunification because a lot of people still
don't know where their loved ones are.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
There's a lot of chaos down there.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
It's emotional support, it's spiritual care, it's that kind of
thing right now when people are really coming to the
realization that they won't be going back home, that their
homes are gone.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
So that's where we are in our operation right now.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
The next phase will be us reaching out and doing
one on one casework with the individuals who are there
to find out what do you need for your next steps.
A lot of people worked out of their homes, so
not only is their home gone, but their their job
is basically.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Gone for right now.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
So there's all kinds of unique needs that we'll be
tackling one by one over the next several months.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Imagine that people who have lost their homes are in
a situation where they've never dealt with this obviously before,
and they don't know what to do and they don't
know what services are available.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Can the Red Cross kind of point them in the
right direction?
Speaker 5 (13:13):
Yeah, you know, we are a connector.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Our shelters, I like to say, are not just a
place to sleep, but there are places to come and
they're information hucks, right so people can come in and
find out what is the status of the fire or
the weather or if not Red Cross, how can I
get help? And the Red Cross likes to work with
other agencies to make sure that if we can't do it,
we'll connect you to the resource that can help you.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
So it's really it's not just us. It's amazing.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
If you go down there, you see all of these
different agencies working together to make sure these people get
what they need.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Now, is this affecting blood donations in the area of
the fires and is there any increased need for blood
donations here?
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Yeah, So many people think the disaster is just about
people that are hurt that need blood, but really it
also hinders our ability to collect blood. For instance, all
the winter storms back east canceled eight hundred blood drives,
you know, and that was thousands of units not collected.
Now we've got a west coast wildfire that's affecting an
(14:14):
entire metropolitan area. You can just imagine all the different
blood collection plans or events have been canceled.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
A lot of them have been canceled.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
So to answer your question, yes, if you are healthy
and you are able to get to a location where
you can donate blood, it is needed right now to
backfill a lot of the things that we won't be
able to gather blood in other areas.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
If that makes sense, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Tell us about the process of registering to donate blood
or platelets. How do people start and what do they do?
How does the process work?
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Well, we really encourage people to make an appointment, right
Some people will walk in and go, well, they didn't
take me. But we have phlebotomists, you know, they're medical
professionals that are lined up getting ready to take in
the people who've made appointments. So you go online to
Redcross Blood dot org, redcrossblood dot org, put in your
zip code, and right there you'll see a bunch of
different blood drives populated right in front of you for
(15:07):
the next couple of weeks to see what might work
for you. At that point, you make your appointment, you
come in, there'll be a screening process really a health
questionnaire to make sure that you are healthy and able
to give blood. At that point you'll go in and
you'll sit down. The actual blood draw time takes about
ten minutes. I know for some it's even less than that.
(15:27):
And then you go to the table and get your
snacks and get your blood sugar back up and you're
on your way. So the whole process when you get
here is about an hour. But you can go online
right now to Red crossblood dot org and book an
appointment in minutes now.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
For somebody that wants to do something besides make a
donation of blood or platelets, are financial donations the best
way to help at this time.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah, probably you've seen on TV some of the big
piles of items that are being donated down to the
Los Angeles area, and that's a wonderful thing. The Red
Cross can be more agile and pivot to the individual
needs of our clients and our shelters with financial donations.
So we ask people to again go to Red Cross
dot org, red Cross dot.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
Org or call one eight hundred red Cross.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
And also really easy on your phone right now if
you just text Red Cross to nine zero nine nine nine,
you can make a donation that way as well. Again,
we don't have the means to go through all the items.
If you do want to donate items, though, specifically we
ask you to go to two one one La dot
org two one one La dot org and there are
(16:35):
other organizations that will take your items, but we're just
asking for financial contributions at this time.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Break anything else you'd like to add that I didn't
ask you about.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I think to me is just that we talk a
lot about numbers when we're having these conversations about seven
hundred plus people in our shelters and four hundred volunteers,
and a lot of our volunteers have lost homes. We're
learning that now they have nowhere to go back as
well in Los Angeles. But every number, we tell you
there's a human being behind it, and I think as
(17:06):
a humanitarian organization we never lose focus of that. I
guess I just wanted to point that out to the
listeners as well.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Rebecca, thanks for joining us. That's Rebecca Marshall with the
Red Cross Cascades Region and how they're helping survivors of
the California wildfires. They need blood donations and financial donations.
You can find out more at Redcross dot org. The
Oregon Department of Forestry has released a new version of
the Wildfire Hazard Map. It is intended to make property
(17:34):
owners know if they're in a high wildfire hazard area
and what they might need to do to make their
properties less at risk. Derek Gasparini with the Oregon Department
of Forestry joins us on Local Voices. Derek tell us
about the map's purpose.
Speaker 6 (17:48):
So the purpose of the wildfire hazard Maps. There's two
maps included, one of Environmental Hazard to Wildfire and another
of the wild Light Urban Interface. And the maps purposes
are generally to educate Oregon residents about the level of
hazard where they live. It's to assist prioritizing fire adaptation
(18:08):
and mitigation resources, basically financial assistance for these vulnerable locations
to wildfire, and to identify where defensible space standards and
home hardening codes will apply in the future.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
How is this map different from the original map?
Speaker 6 (18:25):
So over the last two years, Oregon Department of Forestry
and Organs to University researchers have looked at thousands of
public comments from the first launch of the map, through
community meetings that we held throughout the state, meetings with
county planners, county commissioners, lots of local officials and input
(18:47):
and there's some major differences in a couple types of
wildfire hazard, at least at an environmental level. So there
were some adjustments for hay and pasture lands represented as
a little higher hazard. After a closer look, adjustments in
Northwest Oregon for certain types of forest fuels. There was
(19:08):
a change that the organ Board of Forestry adopted rules
to address irrigated agricultural fields that reduces hazard and irrigated agriculture.
And then there were some verified anomalies from county planners
and kind of some statistical changes in the way that
the map shows that hazard to have more contiguous lines,
(19:33):
so it's a little easier for people to understand and
digest where the difference in hazard zones are and generally
the number of high hazard properties that are also in
Wildland Urban interface. There was about one hundred and twenty
thousand in the first version of the map, and with
those changes, there's now about one hundred and six thousand
(19:54):
property tax lots out of Oregon's one point nine million
tax lots that are in those dual criteria.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
What's the easiest way to find the map and how
should property owners use the information?
Speaker 6 (20:06):
So the easiest way to find the map is just
to Google organ explore. It is a product of the
Institute of Natural Resources in association with Oregon State University,
and it allows you to just search your property address
and find the information on that hazard whether you're in
(20:27):
the law ledburn interface. And there's a homeowners report that
has lots of detailed information explaining what it means to
you and what and what you might have to do. Generally,
the map again for property owners, just designates those areas
where future home hardening building codes will apply and where
(20:49):
future defensible space codes might apply. For those folks who
have appropriate defensible space. This designation may not require folks
to do anything further than they've already.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
So will property owners be required to do anything now?
Or you mentioned the future code changes, would it be
when those code changes happen.
Speaker 6 (21:09):
It's when those code changes happen. What we hope folks
do now is read through the packetive information that we've
mailed to them. We are required by law to send
a notification to all of those one hundred and six
thousand property tax lots owners, and it's a pretty thick
packet of information sent certified mail that has lots of
(21:31):
good information about those defensible space codes, about home hardening,
how when they might apply. And both the Department of
Consumer and Business Services who's responsible for building codes, and
the State Fire Marshal who's responsible for those defensible space codes,
won't begin their their separate code adoption processes until after
(21:52):
the appeal period is closed. On the map, so there
is information about property owner's ability to appeal the designation
and an appeal form included in that packet, so people
can exercise that right if they wish.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Well, there be any assistance for property owners that need
to create defensible space or do home hardening projects.
Speaker 6 (22:12):
So Brett, I'll actually defer to the Organ State Fire
Marshal there. They do have a defensible space program and
they did have grants in the twenty one to twenty
three by an EM to help folks with home hardening.
I am not currently aware of the state of the
available grants for that program, but that is part of
(22:33):
the overall purpose of these wildfire programs is to be
able to provide assistance to folks with compliance with those
future codes. I will say that Organ State Fire Marshal
is taking an education and assistance approach. First, they are
having any stay on enforcement for the foreseeable future, and
again their codes are not even adopted, so they have
(22:56):
a plan for education assistance.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
First. Are their deadlines now moving forward?
Speaker 6 (23:02):
The first initial deadline is the deadline to file an
appeal of those designations, and that's generally around March tenth.
Folks have sixty days from the date of the maps
being posted to the organ Explore to file that appeal
and it's a contested case hearing process.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Again.
Speaker 6 (23:20):
That information packet and information on orient Department of Forestry's
website at Oregon dot gov slash ODF and then just
search for wildfire has information about that appeals process as.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Well anything else that you want listeners to know about
the new maps and how they should be used.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
So I would generally say that in addition to property
owners that are in high hazard and in the wildlie
Urban interface who will get packets of information directly mailed
to them, anyone can access the organ Explorer website and
learn more about wildfire hazard where they live. And folks
that have as designation of any hazard class or inclusion
(24:04):
in the wild in the wild letter of an interface
or not may still appeal and those appeal forms are
available on our website. I just encourage anyone who is
concerned about wildfire hazard to check out the organ Explore
because it is a wealth of information about wildfire hazard.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Derek, thanks for joining us. That's Derek Gasparini with the
Oregon Department of Forestry and details in the new wildfire
hazard maps that show fire risk and what can be
done about it. There is an appeals process for property
owners who dispute the listing, and you can find the
maps on the Oregon Department of forestryes website. New research
from Oregon State University shows a prehistoric link between abrupt
(24:46):
climate change and an increase in wildfire activity. Ben meddel
Young led the project as part of his doctoral studies
at OSU. Your research used ice cores. Explain how that
shows the atmospheric history of the Earth.
Speaker 7 (24:59):
The main samples that we use came from ice cores
in Antarctica. So we use this one ice core from
the center of the ice sheet, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
And basically the way ice cores work for people who
aren't familiar with it is as the snow falls on Antarctica,
it doesn't really melt, and also it accumulates each year,
and as it gets more and more buried, it compresses
(25:20):
into ice. And then one as the ice forms, it
traps these little bubbles of atmospheric samples from at the
time the ice formed, and because Antarctic has been frozen
for so long, we have ice samples that go back
hundreds of thousands of years. And then so for this
study we were mainly focusing on the Last Glacial period,
so that's ice anywhere from like ten thousand years ago
(25:41):
to about fifty thousand years ago. And so what we
did is measured the methane isotopic composition, which, as you know,
methane is a really powerful greenhouse gas, and if we
measure the isotopes, we can sort of use that as
a fingerprint for what caused that methane change. So we're
really trying to figure out the these abrupt methane changes
(26:02):
that happened during the last glacial period happened, and the
way to do that was to measure these isotopes, and
why do you think it happened. The big motivation for
the study was trying to figure out why, and there
were several different hypotheses. So I guess to back up
a little bit, we know we've known for about ten
years now that during the last Glacial period there were
these sort of periodic, really abrupt methane changes of about
(26:22):
fifty parts per billion, which is like very small relative
to the sort of change that we're seeing today, but
it's still the biggest change that we've seen in the
ice core record, sort of before humans started messing with
the environment. So some people thought that maybe that could
come from wetlands. Some people thought it could come from
like a geologic release, like we've heard a lot from
permafrost and marine hydrates and stuff like that. So we
(26:43):
really wanted to go in and get it the origin
of that, and we were pretty surprised to find that
the isotope data that we measured was sort of consistent
with these emissions from wildfires, which is not really what
we expected.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
And why would there be more wildfires during a dramatic
change in the climate.
Speaker 7 (27:02):
These changes in methane happened during what we call periods
of abrupt climate change, which isn't necessarily what we think
about in terms of modern climate change, where the whole
globe is warming. This is sort of more a reorganization
of climate, where some parts of the world warm really abruptly,
other parts cool really abruptly. So an increase in wildfires
(27:23):
tied to these events could be related to the fact
that as you're shifting, you know, temperature and rainfall patterns
around you might dry out a part of the world
that would then result in increased wildfire.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
How should this research be interpreted.
Speaker 7 (27:36):
It's definitely a flashy headline. You know, big wildfires during
the past last glacial period resulted in methane emissions and
CO two rises. But I think it's important to distinguish
this climate change and resulting fires from what we're seeing today. So,
like I said, these abrupt climate events are sort of
reorganizations of the climate system that are moving tropical rainfall
(28:01):
patterns around and causing droughts in some places, and wildfires
are sorry an increased rainfall in others. And while that's
like a possibility in modern climate change, we're dealing with
sort of a different beast. But what's really important about
this research is just shows that when you have these
sort of regional reorganizations of climate, we sort of provided
(28:22):
the first evidence that in addition to drought and moving
precipitation and temperatures, fire might also be a key feature
of these events as well. And if in our modern
climate we see a similar sort of regional climate change,
you know, that could be driven by something like amac
collapse that we've heard a lot of in the news,
that could be something that we would have to worry
about as well.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
That's Ben Rodell Young, a researcher at Oregon State University,
detailing his studies that use ice course from Antarctica to
study past climate changes and the link they found between
global climate change and an increase in wildfires. Thanks for
listening to Local Voices, I'm brad Board. You can hear
past episode on the iHeartRadio app under.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
The podcast tab.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Local Voices is a public affairs presentation from iHeartRadio
Welcome to Local Voices. I'm brad Ford. There's an organization
in Portland fighting gentrification that needs your help. Local Red
Cross volunteers are working in California to help survivors of
the wildfires, and the Oregon Department of Forest Free has
released a new version of the wildfire hazard maps. We'll
tell you what it means for property owners. There's an
(00:26):
organization in Portland fighting gentrification. It's called Taking Ownership PDX
and the founder and executive director is Randall Wyatt. Randall,
How did Taking Ownership PDX start and what does it do?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
Taking Ownership PDX is a community based organization. We repair
and renovate black owned homes. We're prioritizing the black community
right now, and we hope to also get into other
communities in the future. But right now we're prioritizing the
black community and we repair and renovatum free to the homeowner.
We also provide financial assistance to black owned small business
(01:00):
is in the Portland metro area. How I got into this, Well,
the idea kind of came from my studies at Portland
State University. I got a degree in social science with
a double minor and Black studies and sociology. So I
was studying, you know, white supremacy and the plight of
African Americans and society in general, and it just kind
(01:20):
of hit me that white supremacy is kind of predicated
on land ownership, taking land, keeping land, excluding non white
populations from from getting land because that's the fastest way
to build wealth and pass it on to generations. And
it kind of just figured out how some of the
ways that they were gentrifying areas and displacing black homeowners
(01:42):
from the communities that they had you know, established roots in.
And so once figuring that out, I figured out one
of those ways was through deferred maintenance and seasonal maintenance.
And how when those areas become gentrified and affluent people
move into those communities, they start to complain about the
maintenance of their black and brown neighbors, and then that
(02:03):
leads to fines and leans and vulnerability to basic predatory
developers and real estate professionals. So I thought, well, one
way we can maybe you know, deter this process and
fight back, would keep their homes maintained, provide deferred maintenance
and repairs and seasonal maintenance for these homeowners so that
(02:24):
they're not vulnerable anymore or as vulnerable at least.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
One of the things that taking Ownership PDX works against
is gentrification.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Explain what that is gentrification.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
That's a tough one for me to explain sometimes, but
it's you know, it starts with usually a community that
hasn't been invested in, like for in particular in this
in Portland, it's Albina, right, the Albina community where black
people were redlined and forced to live into these communities,
and then they weren't able to get any loans for
(02:55):
keeping up with their homes or or to even sometimes
you know, or buy home in other areas. So these
communities had to kind of fend for themselves. And then
it becomes kind of the path of least resistance when
they decide they want to develop or these areas or
do urban development. So they come in and then they
start investing in the community, but they're not investing into
(03:16):
the people that actually lived in those communities. They're they're
making it now appealing to other populations to move into them.
And then when that happens, there's usually a wealth disparity,
which leads to are raised in the cost of living,
which leads to the people that were originally in those
communities having to move out of them.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Because they keep up live exactly.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
So you know, yeah, when the when the big old
you know, condos start coming in and and you know,
it just starts making it very challenging. And then you
have people, you know, with they have predatory practices. They
come in and they actually do things like urban blight
where they're like, oh, your stairs aren't aren't up the
code or something, and they start hitting me with and
(04:00):
things like that. So they always have they have other
tactics and ways to dupe homeowners out of selling their
homes under market. And then they do that and they
can't afford to buy anything else in that community because
the costume living went up so much. And then that's
that's my best way of explaining sure grification.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
You talked about redlining, Why don't you talk a little
bit about Portland's real estate and banking history and what
that has done well.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
I will say I'm not an expert in that in
that area, but I would say, you know, for a
long time and a lot of the banks they wouldn't
provide loans to this is the area I work in.
They wouldn't provide loans to for homeowners to keep up
with their maintenance and repairs, and there's already a wealth gap,
so they find themselves in a position where they can't
(04:47):
keep their homes maintained and and it just leaves no
vulnerable to getting leans and fines put on their homes
due to code issues. And that's how people can come
in and swoop in and be like, I noticed you
have a whole a lot of leans in your house,
and I'll offer you this amount of money to take
to take your home. And then there's you know, redlining
(05:08):
where they wouldn't provide any kind of loans or you know, mortgages,
so they can buy homes wherever they wanted to buy them.
They would only say in this area, or they would
tell other, you know, populations, this is an undesirable area,
so you can't move here, you know, things like that.
So and then there's there's the optional arm loans and
the subprime loans that you know that we know very
(05:29):
well about two thousand and eight because that hit everybody then.
But they were going after black and brown populations in
the eighties and nineties with those type of loans that
the rate keeps going up and up and then eventually
you can't afford to pay your mortgage, right, and that
was stripping equity from from homes. And yeah, so those
are just some of the practices from the banks and
(05:49):
real estate professionals.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
So tell us a little bit more about how taking
Ownership PDX works.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Sure, we have three programs.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
So we have our Home Improvement program, so we raise
money and we hire vendors and contractors to come out
and perform the services that the homeowners request. We also
do like home energy assessments through our partnership with Energy
Trust of Organs, so we can provide renewable energy resources
that oftentimes marginalized communities get left out of. And they're
(06:19):
also the most impacted communities by climate change, so we're
trying to get into that field too. Within that program.
And then we have our Community Impact program, which is
more based around our volunteers, so they come out and
do the seasonal maintenance, the stuff that you don't need
a license, bonded and ensured contractor for. They'll come out,
you know, clean up a yard, do some basic landscaping,
(06:40):
declutter a house. And the majority of our homeowners are
senior citizens, so and so you know, they need a
lot of support. I'm thirty nine years old and I
just became a homeowner not that long ago.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
It's a lot of work. It's tough.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
I can't imagine, you know, not having the physical ability
to get around your house. So it's a very impactful
program to keep their homes you know, seasonally maintained. And
it also alleviates and prevents a lot of those leans
and finds that I was telling you about, because it
takes care of a lot of the aesthetic parts of
the home.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
And then we have our.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Small Business Financial Assistance Program and there we provide small,
small you know, grants for business owners. Right now, we
have a partnership with dev Northwest, which is an IDA program,
and they go through that program and we provide the
initial twelve hundred dollars to put into their IDA account.
Once they finish the program with dev Northwest, they get
(07:39):
that match times five and get a good chunk of
change to play with.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
So since you started the program, how many homes have
you worked on? How many homes have you helped?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, we started back in mid twenty twenty, so around
like May or June, and since then we've served probably
about one hundred and fifty homeowners and we you know,
we've come back and helped. So we've done a number
of projects because you know, especially the seasonal maintenance, we
got to come back and do that. But yeah, we've
helped around there. Yeah, various repairs.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
And one thing you mentioned that you touched on this
a little bit earlier, but what's the average income of
the homeowners that you're helping.
Speaker 3 (08:18):
So we're serving one hundred and twenty percent AMI and
below most are below eighty percent am I. Like I said,
most of our homeowners are our elders, and a lot
of them are on fixed Social security. I mean, so
I would say it's hard to put an average together.
I'd probably say in less than forty thousand.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, sure, easily, especially I see that a lot somebody
on social Security.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
Oh yeah, how do you raise money? How does the
organization raise money? We write a ton of grants.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Yeah, we started out though, like the community has really
showed up for us. Our first one point three million
was mostly like just private donations for community, and that
was in like the first couple of years, you know,
and now we're starting to get some big old grants
and stuff. We just got a two point five million
dollars grant from the eighteen oh three fund, which is
(09:10):
phil Knights Foundation, and so mostly mostly that, and there's
just writing grants and and we still get a lot
of donations from the community.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
It's really well supported.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
What about project sponsorships? Are you're looking for for sponsors
of certain projects or large large Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Either donors or organizations to help.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
Absolutely, We're always looking for for sponsorships and donations from companies, organizations, whoever.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
We have like.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
A cool sponsorship portion of our community Impact program where
you know, if a company wants their staff to come
out and volunteer and uh, you know, because these volunteer
projects they're not free for us to.
Speaker 2 (09:49):
Right together, so we ask for you know, like a.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Gift and and then you come out and and you
can help a homeowner in the community and you know,
get your photo ops and uh yeah, yeah, it's a
win for everybody. Exactly. Do you need volunteers, I wouldn't
say we need them. We have over five hundred signed up. Yeah,
but I encourage it because I mean it's just a
great way to get into your community. The projects are
(10:15):
are always like great networking. It's like like minded people
there I'm just I've heard overwhelmingly, you know, positive reviews
about these projects. And I have a great Jed Overly
as our director. He's great about running that program. So
I always encourage people to do it and come out,
and you know, it just gives you a chance to
(10:36):
actually get your hands dirty and really do some tangible
you know, giving back.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Exactly, giving back to the community. Yeah. So if people
want to learn more how do they do the work?
Is there a website they can.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Go to Absolutely taking Ownership pdx dot org. You can
go there and you can help in a number of ways.
You can donate, of course, that's always great. Money goes
a long way. You can sign up to be a volunteer.
You can get if you like a company, organization, or
you know somebody. You can get onto our community resource list,
which is great to get some exposure for your business,
(11:08):
but also it shows us who in the community is
you know, in support of our mission. And we hire
you know a lot of people, We hire vendors and
sure contractors all the time, so it's always good to
see who's out there and what resources out there. And
then you know, we have merchandise and we have a
pretty good amount of merchandise, so please help me get
that out of my garage and yeah, you know, spread
(11:32):
the word.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, terrific. White. Thank you very much for joining us
on local voices. I appreciate that my pleasure. Thanks for
having me.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
That's Randall Wyatt, founder and executive director of Taking Ownership
PDX again. Their website is Taking Ownership pdx dot org.
The Red Cross is helping survivors of the California wildfires.
Many volunteers from the Northwest are part of the effort.
Rebecca Marshall with the Red Cross Cascades Ragon joins us
(11:59):
on Local Voices. Rebecca how many local volunteers are part
of the effort.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
At last check we had eighteen and that has climbed
over the past seven days. I expected, I'll climb a
little bit more and then, you know, then our operations
shift a little bit. So to give you sort of
an idea, right now, we're in the sheltering business. It's sheltering,
it's feeding. It's reunification because a lot of people still
don't know where their loved ones are.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
There's a lot of chaos down there.
Speaker 4 (12:26):
It's emotional support, it's spiritual care, it's that kind of
thing right now when people are really coming to the
realization that they won't be going back home, that their
homes are gone.
Speaker 5 (12:36):
So that's where we are in our operation right now.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
The next phase will be us reaching out and doing
one on one casework with the individuals who are there
to find out what do you need for your next steps.
A lot of people worked out of their homes, so
not only is their home gone, but their their job
is basically.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Gone for right now.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
So there's all kinds of unique needs that we'll be
tackling one by one over the next several months.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Imagine that people who have lost their homes are in
a situation where they've never dealt with this obviously before,
and they don't know what to do and they don't
know what services are available.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Can the Red Cross kind of point them in the
right direction?
Speaker 5 (13:13):
Yeah, you know, we are a connector.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
Our shelters, I like to say, are not just a
place to sleep, but there are places to come and
they're information hucks, right so people can come in and
find out what is the status of the fire or
the weather or if not Red Cross, how can I
get help? And the Red Cross likes to work with
other agencies to make sure that if we can't do it,
we'll connect you to the resource that can help you.
Speaker 5 (13:36):
So it's really it's not just us. It's amazing.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
If you go down there, you see all of these
different agencies working together to make sure these people get
what they need.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Now, is this affecting blood donations in the area of
the fires and is there any increased need for blood
donations here?
Speaker 4 (13:54):
Yeah, So many people think the disaster is just about
people that are hurt that need blood, but really it
also hinders our ability to collect blood. For instance, all
the winter storms back east canceled eight hundred blood drives,
you know, and that was thousands of units not collected.
Now we've got a west coast wildfire that's affecting an
(14:14):
entire metropolitan area. You can just imagine all the different
blood collection plans or events have been canceled.
Speaker 5 (14:23):
A lot of them have been canceled.
Speaker 4 (14:24):
So to answer your question, yes, if you are healthy
and you are able to get to a location where
you can donate blood, it is needed right now to
backfill a lot of the things that we won't be
able to gather blood in other areas.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
If that makes sense, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Tell us about the process of registering to donate blood
or platelets. How do people start and what do they do?
How does the process work?
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Well, we really encourage people to make an appointment, right
Some people will walk in and go, well, they didn't
take me. But we have phlebotomists, you know, they're medical
professionals that are lined up getting ready to take in
the people who've made appointments. So you go online to
Redcross Blood dot org, redcrossblood dot org, put in your
zip code, and right there you'll see a bunch of
different blood drives populated right in front of you for
(15:07):
the next couple of weeks to see what might work
for you. At that point, you make your appointment, you
come in, there'll be a screening process really a health
questionnaire to make sure that you are healthy and able
to give blood. At that point you'll go in and
you'll sit down. The actual blood draw time takes about
ten minutes. I know for some it's even less than that.
(15:27):
And then you go to the table and get your
snacks and get your blood sugar back up and you're
on your way. So the whole process when you get
here is about an hour. But you can go online
right now to Red crossblood dot org and book an
appointment in minutes now.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
For somebody that wants to do something besides make a
donation of blood or platelets, are financial donations the best
way to help at this time.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah, probably you've seen on TV some of the big
piles of items that are being donated down to the
Los Angeles area, and that's a wonderful thing. The Red
Cross can be more agile and pivot to the individual
needs of our clients and our shelters with financial donations.
So we ask people to again go to Red Cross
dot org, red Cross dot.
Speaker 5 (16:11):
Org or call one eight hundred red Cross.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
And also really easy on your phone right now if
you just text Red Cross to nine zero nine nine nine,
you can make a donation that way as well. Again,
we don't have the means to go through all the items.
If you do want to donate items, though, specifically we
ask you to go to two one one La dot
org two one one La dot org and there are
(16:35):
other organizations that will take your items, but we're just
asking for financial contributions at this time.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
Break anything else you'd like to add that I didn't
ask you about.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
I think to me is just that we talk a
lot about numbers when we're having these conversations about seven
hundred plus people in our shelters and four hundred volunteers,
and a lot of our volunteers have lost homes. We're
learning that now they have nowhere to go back as
well in Los Angeles. But every number, we tell you
there's a human being behind it, and I think as
(17:06):
a humanitarian organization we never lose focus of that. I
guess I just wanted to point that out to the
listeners as well.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
Rebecca, thanks for joining us. That's Rebecca Marshall with the
Red Cross Cascades Region and how they're helping survivors of
the California wildfires. They need blood donations and financial donations.
You can find out more at Redcross dot org. The
Oregon Department of Forestry has released a new version of
the Wildfire Hazard Map. It is intended to make property
(17:34):
owners know if they're in a high wildfire hazard area
and what they might need to do to make their
properties less at risk. Derek Gasparini with the Oregon Department
of Forestry joins us on Local Voices. Derek tell us
about the map's purpose.
Speaker 6 (17:48):
So the purpose of the wildfire hazard Maps. There's two
maps included, one of Environmental Hazard to Wildfire and another
of the wild Light Urban Interface. And the maps purposes
are generally to educate Oregon residents about the level of
hazard where they live. It's to assist prioritizing fire adaptation
(18:08):
and mitigation resources, basically financial assistance for these vulnerable locations
to wildfire, and to identify where defensible space standards and
home hardening codes will apply in the future.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
How is this map different from the original map?
Speaker 6 (18:25):
So over the last two years, Oregon Department of Forestry
and Organs to University researchers have looked at thousands of
public comments from the first launch of the map, through
community meetings that we held throughout the state, meetings with
county planners, county commissioners, lots of local officials and input
(18:47):
and there's some major differences in a couple types of
wildfire hazard, at least at an environmental level. So there
were some adjustments for hay and pasture lands represented as
a little higher hazard. After a closer look, adjustments in
Northwest Oregon for certain types of forest fuels. There was
(19:08):
a change that the organ Board of Forestry adopted rules
to address irrigated agricultural fields that reduces hazard and irrigated agriculture.
And then there were some verified anomalies from county planners
and kind of some statistical changes in the way that
the map shows that hazard to have more contiguous lines,
(19:33):
so it's a little easier for people to understand and
digest where the difference in hazard zones are and generally
the number of high hazard properties that are also in
Wildland Urban interface. There was about one hundred and twenty
thousand in the first version of the map, and with
those changes, there's now about one hundred and six thousand
(19:54):
property tax lots out of Oregon's one point nine million
tax lots that are in those dual criteria.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
What's the easiest way to find the map and how
should property owners use the information?
Speaker 6 (20:06):
So the easiest way to find the map is just
to Google organ explore. It is a product of the
Institute of Natural Resources in association with Oregon State University,
and it allows you to just search your property address
and find the information on that hazard whether you're in
(20:27):
the law ledburn interface. And there's a homeowners report that
has lots of detailed information explaining what it means to
you and what and what you might have to do. Generally,
the map again for property owners, just designates those areas
where future home hardening building codes will apply and where
(20:49):
future defensible space codes might apply. For those folks who
have appropriate defensible space. This designation may not require folks
to do anything further than they've already.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
So will property owners be required to do anything now?
Or you mentioned the future code changes, would it be
when those code changes happen.
Speaker 6 (21:09):
It's when those code changes happen. What we hope folks
do now is read through the packetive information that we've
mailed to them. We are required by law to send
a notification to all of those one hundred and six
thousand property tax lots owners, and it's a pretty thick
packet of information sent certified mail that has lots of
(21:31):
good information about those defensible space codes, about home hardening,
how when they might apply. And both the Department of
Consumer and Business Services who's responsible for building codes, and
the State Fire Marshal who's responsible for those defensible space codes,
won't begin their their separate code adoption processes until after
(21:52):
the appeal period is closed. On the map, so there
is information about property owner's ability to appeal the designation
and an appeal form included in that packet, so people
can exercise that right if they wish.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Well, there be any assistance for property owners that need
to create defensible space or do home hardening projects.
Speaker 6 (22:12):
So Brett, I'll actually defer to the Organ State Fire
Marshal there. They do have a defensible space program and
they did have grants in the twenty one to twenty
three by an EM to help folks with home hardening.
I am not currently aware of the state of the
available grants for that program, but that is part of
(22:33):
the overall purpose of these wildfire programs is to be
able to provide assistance to folks with compliance with those
future codes. I will say that Organ State Fire Marshal
is taking an education and assistance approach. First, they are
having any stay on enforcement for the foreseeable future, and
again their codes are not even adopted, so they have
(22:56):
a plan for education assistance.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
First. Are their deadlines now moving forward?
Speaker 6 (23:02):
The first initial deadline is the deadline to file an
appeal of those designations, and that's generally around March tenth.
Folks have sixty days from the date of the maps
being posted to the organ Explore to file that appeal
and it's a contested case hearing process.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Again.
Speaker 6 (23:20):
That information packet and information on orient Department of Forestry's
website at Oregon dot gov slash ODF and then just
search for wildfire has information about that appeals process as.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Well anything else that you want listeners to know about
the new maps and how they should be used.
Speaker 6 (23:40):
So I would generally say that in addition to property
owners that are in high hazard and in the wildlie
Urban interface who will get packets of information directly mailed
to them, anyone can access the organ Explorer website and
learn more about wildfire hazard where they live. And folks
that have as designation of any hazard class or inclusion
(24:04):
in the wild in the wild letter of an interface
or not may still appeal and those appeal forms are
available on our website. I just encourage anyone who is
concerned about wildfire hazard to check out the organ Explore
because it is a wealth of information about wildfire hazard.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
Derek, thanks for joining us. That's Derek Gasparini with the
Oregon Department of Forestry and details in the new wildfire
hazard maps that show fire risk and what can be
done about it. There is an appeals process for property
owners who dispute the listing, and you can find the
maps on the Oregon Department of forestryes website. New research
from Oregon State University shows a prehistoric link between abrupt
(24:46):
climate change and an increase in wildfire activity. Ben meddel
Young led the project as part of his doctoral studies
at OSU. Your research used ice cores. Explain how that
shows the atmospheric history of the Earth.
Speaker 7 (24:59):
The main samples that we use came from ice cores
in Antarctica. So we use this one ice core from
the center of the ice sheet, the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
And basically the way ice cores work for people who
aren't familiar with it is as the snow falls on Antarctica,
it doesn't really melt, and also it accumulates each year,
and as it gets more and more buried, it compresses
(25:20):
into ice. And then one as the ice forms, it
traps these little bubbles of atmospheric samples from at the
time the ice formed, and because Antarctic has been frozen
for so long, we have ice samples that go back
hundreds of thousands of years. And then so for this
study we were mainly focusing on the Last Glacial period,
so that's ice anywhere from like ten thousand years ago
(25:41):
to about fifty thousand years ago. And so what we
did is measured the methane isotopic composition, which, as you know,
methane is a really powerful greenhouse gas, and if we
measure the isotopes, we can sort of use that as
a fingerprint for what caused that methane change. So we're
really trying to figure out the these abrupt methane changes
(26:02):
that happened during the last glacial period happened, and the
way to do that was to measure these isotopes, and
why do you think it happened. The big motivation for
the study was trying to figure out why, and there
were several different hypotheses. So I guess to back up
a little bit, we know we've known for about ten
years now that during the last Glacial period there were
these sort of periodic, really abrupt methane changes of about
(26:22):
fifty parts per billion, which is like very small relative
to the sort of change that we're seeing today, but
it's still the biggest change that we've seen in the
ice core record, sort of before humans started messing with
the environment. So some people thought that maybe that could
come from wetlands. Some people thought it could come from
like a geologic release, like we've heard a lot from
permafrost and marine hydrates and stuff like that. So we
(26:43):
really wanted to go in and get it the origin
of that, and we were pretty surprised to find that
the isotope data that we measured was sort of consistent
with these emissions from wildfires, which is not really what
we expected.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
And why would there be more wildfires during a dramatic
change in the climate.
Speaker 7 (27:02):
These changes in methane happened during what we call periods
of abrupt climate change, which isn't necessarily what we think
about in terms of modern climate change, where the whole
globe is warming. This is sort of more a reorganization
of climate, where some parts of the world warm really abruptly,
other parts cool really abruptly. So an increase in wildfires
(27:23):
tied to these events could be related to the fact
that as you're shifting, you know, temperature and rainfall patterns
around you might dry out a part of the world
that would then result in increased wildfire.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
How should this research be interpreted.
Speaker 7 (27:36):
It's definitely a flashy headline. You know, big wildfires during
the past last glacial period resulted in methane emissions and
CO two rises. But I think it's important to distinguish
this climate change and resulting fires from what we're seeing today. So,
like I said, these abrupt climate events are sort of
reorganizations of the climate system that are moving tropical rainfall
(28:01):
patterns around and causing droughts in some places, and wildfires
are sorry an increased rainfall in others. And while that's
like a possibility in modern climate change, we're dealing with
sort of a different beast. But what's really important about
this research is just shows that when you have these
sort of regional reorganizations of climate, we sort of provided
(28:22):
the first evidence that in addition to drought and moving
precipitation and temperatures, fire might also be a key feature
of these events as well. And if in our modern
climate we see a similar sort of regional climate change,
you know, that could be driven by something like amac
collapse that we've heard a lot of in the news,
that could be something that we would have to worry
about as well.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
That's Ben Rodell Young, a researcher at Oregon State University,
detailing his studies that use ice course from Antarctica to
study past climate changes and the link they found between
global climate change and an increase in wildfires. Thanks for
listening to Local Voices, I'm brad Board. You can hear
past episode on the iHeartRadio app under.
Speaker 2 (29:01):
The podcast tab.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
Local Voices is a public affairs presentation from iHeartRadio
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