Apple's Tim Cook promises donations for latest California wildfires

Much of California is a desert. The natural state of the state is dry, flammable brush.

SpamSandwich said:

Much of California is a desert. The natural state of the state is dry, flammable brush.

Actually, not much of California is desert:

https://www.desertusa.com/north-american-deserts.html

https://www.desertusa.com/desert.html

"Deserts are often defined as areas that receive less than 10 inches of average annual rainfall, but a more accurate defining factor is aridity. In addition to low rainfall, deserts are characterized by a high rate of water loss from the ground (evaporation) and through plants (transpiration). Together this is called evapotranspiration. Potential evapotranspiration is the amount of water that would be lost through evaporation and transpiration if it were available. Scientists measure this using a large pan of water under controlled conditions. In deserts the rate of potntial evapotranspiration exceeds the average annual rainfall by factors ranging from 2:1 to 33:1 or more. In other words, a desert is arid.

Another characteristic of a desert environment is the uneven and unpredictable nature of the little precipitation that occurs. The average annual precipitation is a poor predictor of rainfall in any given year. In some years a desert may receive what seems like abundant rainfall, while in most years rainfall is meager. And some years it may not rain at all.

Dryness influences other characteristics of deserts. Water vapor, either as humidity or cloud cover reflects heat, with a cooling effect. Areas with low humidity, few clouds and bodies of water, and little vegetation absorb most of the sun's radiation, thus heating the air at the soil surface. At night the same conditions allow the heat to be radiated back into the atmosphere. Thus, temperatures can be extreme both daily and seasonally. 

Wide temperature fluctuations have another effect. Warm air rises, and cool air sinks; rapid temperature change causes desert air to move rapidly from place to place. Deserts are windy, and windy conditions contribute to evaporation.

I live in a state that is predominately desert, Nevada, most of it considered "high" or "cold" desert.

SpamSandwich said:

Much of California is a desert. The natural state of the state is dry, flammable brush.

Like much of your commentary, opinion presented as facts. Sad. 

Firefighters are great. You might think, oh they're not that smart or they would be financial analysts or computer programmers. But smartness is not the only virtue, bravery is too.

ascii said:

Firefighters are great. You might think, oh they're not that smart or they would be financial analysts or computer programmers. But smartness is not the only virtue, bravery is too.

I worked in wildland fire management during and after my education as a mechanical engineer at the University of Nevada, Reno, and I was with a broad range of individuals with and without college educations. As a job, it was one of the hardest and most satisfying that I could ever imagine, and after my last three seasons as a smokejumper in Alaska, I called it quits in my mid 30's to start a machine shop, which I still have today, some 30 years on.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/09/climate/why-california-fires.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytclimate

I seldom make assumptions about someone's education based on their current job.