California has had the driest three years ever recorded, causing record-breaking fires, and it's expected to get worse in the coming months.

The fire season in the US west has increased, typically, by 70 days since a few decades ago. That is long-term change, global heating at work.

The fires convert trees into carbon dioxide, adding to global heating. Positive feedbacks like this mean that at some point (which we can't predict) global heating will become self-perpetuating.

The fools running the University of California refused to divest from fossil fool companies.

They think divestment would cut the income for running the university. That's probably true, for the next few years at least. They'd certainly be better off continuing the status quo — but they are fools to think that is what they have chosen.

Have they thought about how much funds the University of California will lose when global heating wrecks the state economy? When drought eliminates half the farming in California, and the forests are burning up, do they think the state will prioritize the university over firefighters? If global heating continues unchecked, some sort of University of California may still exist in 30 years, but it will be a shadow of its present-day self.

If the regents were wiser, they would grab at any chance to avoid that fate. Divestment at least offers a chance.

This is much worse than rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. They are on the oil train, rolling slowly torwards Lac-Mégantic, and trying to save money by not putting on the brakes.

Pennsylvania has 200,000 abandoned oil wells, and when fracking is done near them, they become channels for leaking methane.

Ilham Tohti is about to be convicted of bogus charges after a phony trial. His unpardonable crime was to rebuke abuses of power rather than advocate Uighur nationalism.

Canada's extraction lobbyist hopes that more disasters with oil trains will convince the US to approve Keystone XL.

However, looking at the harm done by extracting it as well as by burning it the best option is to stop transporting that oil in any way.

The head of the Lib Dems says he won't let the UK be lured into war with ISIS by provocative videos. There are surely some US politicians that are wise enough to reject that, but the mainstream media don't present them much.