Over the past 100 years, California has become known for rampant wildfires that burn across the state each summer. Despite making national news each year, millions of acres of land have been burned during the last century, and there is little sign that the trend will be reversed.
In just two years, California has seen multiple record-breaking fires burn. The highly monitored Bobcat Fire, which began late this summer in Los Angeles County, has scorched 115,796 acres thus far. As of October 9, 2020, the August Complex fire in the coastal range Northwest of Sacramento Valley has burned 1,021,476 acres of land, and is still only 65% contained. In early September 2020, images of glowing red skies, “smokenadoes,” and “firenadoes” caused by these fires flooded social media, triggering fear and disbelief as multiple fires raged not just in California, but also in Washington, Oregon, and Colorado. The eerie doomsday color that painted the West Coast sky was not unprecedented, but rather another warning that we are heading down a path with no return.
As supernatural as it may seem, fire tornadoes and red skies are not just random instances of climate phenomena. Rather, it’s the accumulated result of negligent and misinformed environmental policy decisions, our global superpowers’ inability to efficiently address climate change, and disregard for Indigenous knowledge and practices.
There is a long history of United States fire policy that set the tone for over 100 years of disastrous fires and policy. In the late 1800s, large forest fires enabled early conservationists to argue for fire suppression to protect the commercial timber industry. This further supported the creation of national forests that conservationists deemed necessary to protect from fire at all costs. The Big Blow Up fire of 1910 burned 3 million acres of forest, eventually leading three ex-firefighters who worked to put out that fire to become Forest Service chiefs who pushed fire suppression practices and rhetoric. Later, in 1935, the infamous 10 AM Policy was enacted by the Forest Service to control wildfires mandating that all fires be extinguished by 10 AM the following day, until 1978, when the Forest Service abandoned the policy, of a from fire suppression toward fire management.
The devastating effects of federal fire policies that preceded this current administration, are now being further exacerbated by its refusal to accept climate science. According to Donald Trump, he doesn’t think “science knows” what’s happening, whereas experts have been warning for years that these fires will keep getting worst with global warming. In conjunction with this, pulling the United States out of the Paris Agreement is sure to be an absolute disaster. Last November, Secretary Mike Pompeo tweeted that the United States has been “a world leader in reducing all emissions, fostering resilience, growing our economy, and ensuring energy for our citizens”, and ensured the US’s alternative post Paris Agreement resignation was “a realistic and pragmatic model.” However, to pull out of the Paris Agreement to avoid “intolerable burdens” to the U.S. economy is a complete oversight to the long term issue, that climate change will continue to cause devastating events around the world. Our favorability for the well-being of the economy over the health of the environment is symbolic of how deeply-rooted capitalism is destroying the global climate.
The United States track record of fire policy prompted by fear and ignorance, negated and neglected the Indigenous practice of controlled cultural burning, which historically kept the land clear of the dry vegetation that acts as kindling for larger fires. Indigenous people knew that by clearing the land, it reduces fire’s ability to spread rapidly. It was only until the 1960s that scientists began to understand the positive role controlled burns have on ecosystems, but with no accreditation to Indigenous knowledge.
This fear of fire is rooted in a Westernized, deep disconnect and disrespect of nature. When colonizers first arrived, they feared and misunderstood the benefits of fire, therefore suppressing any practice of cultural burning, as just one of the many elements of the genocide committed. Fire, as viewed in this practice, is not something to be feared. Rather, it is a sacred symbol for rebirth and power, with many benefits; some plants rely on fires for growth, like the giant sequoia trees or certain native plants used for cultural practices like basket weaving, where burning old branches allows for more growth the next season.
Like many of this nation’s faults, the neglect and disrespect for indigenous knowledge of the land has been chronic. Just look back at 2016 and the Dakota Pipeline demonstrations. We do not treat water, air or soil in a sustainable or respectable manner, and governments routinely prioritize capital over the environment. And because of this, the obscene amount of pollution created by these large corporations and their negligent governments will certainly push us down that path of no return.
Scientists, farmworkers, climatologists and more all understand that global warming is a large culprit for the dry and hot conditions that are sensitive to sparking fires. We need to listen to indigenous tribes and scientific experts. We must allow the tribes to once again practice controlled burning, but not take this away from them. Indigenous tribes have to be at the forefront of this environmental movement and be credited and compensated– that’s the least we can do. The economy will mean nothing when the disasters caused by climate change take out society as we know it.
Raísa Lin Garden-Lucerna is a proud China-Latina from Brooklyn, New York. Raísa is currently in her last year at Hunter as a CUNY Baccalaureate student pursuing an interdisciplinary degree in Urban Environmental Health and a minor in Public Policy. For her whole life, she has been a highly engaged member and activist at El Puente, an arts and social justice non-profit based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. She is currently serving as Director of Diversity at Box the Ballot, a non-profit bipartisan voting initiative working to deliver ballot boxes across the country to aid in this upcoming election. Raísa has a certificate in Permaculture Design, and in her free time is very passionate about dance and cooking.
