Bharat Dogra :
This in turn must be based on a balanced understanding of the nature and causes of the fires. Forest fires are to some extent part of the ecosystem and are acceptable as long as these are within a limited range. However there is certainly a big problem when the threat from these fires endangers vast areas, their people and animal life. This is what has been happening in recent times. According to the US National Park Service, the area burned annually by California wildfires has increased fivefold since the 1970s.
There is hardly any doubt that climate change has played a very big role in this increase. Fossil Fuel Media Director James Henn has stated, “This is exactly the sort of disaster that Exxon’s own scientists predicted more than 50 years ago, but they spent billions to keep us hooked on fossil fuels.”
While the USA really needs to do a lot more to check climate change, all the indications just now are that its dismal record in this very important area is likely to worsen further, at least in the immediate future. Can greater awareness result from disasters like the LA fires for much more effective actions? If this happens then any significant improvements in the record of the USA in this respect will be very good news for the improved safety of the entire world, and not just the USA.
The indigenous and native people with their knowledge inherited from several generations were able to handle the fires effectively without these becoming a big threat to them, but their skills based on deep knowledge and understanding of local conditions is no longer available to those who are in charge of controlling fires and other disasters. However they can still try to learn from what traditional wisdom has to say in this context.
Such thoughts do not appear to be in the priority list of local governance systems which appear to be engaged more with the big business and glamor-oriented aspects of development rather than with the protective aspects. There have been reports regarding budget cuts in important aspects of safety and disaster preparedness (including the fire department), as well as of poor state of infrastructure like old power lines and water storages. All this contributed to the making this disaster bigger and more destructive.
While attention should certainly be drawn to such flaws and failures it is not proper to polarize the debate more and more along narrow political lines, with political rivals exchanging a lot of allegations while forgetting sometimes to even mention crucial aspects like climate change. Such disasters are not the time for scoring political points. In such a narrow discourse a balanced view of factors which increased the intensity and destructivity of the disaster is difficult to emerge. Hence efforts at a more balanced understanding of the disaster must be emphasized so that the right lessons for future can be learnt, both at policy and implementation levels.
A wider initiative should be to start more informed discussion and debate on the country’s highly distorted priorities of on the one hand getting involved in highly destructive wars and proxy war endlessly, while on the other hand neglecting some of the most important responsibilities relating to environment protection, at the same time underspending on public safety, crucial infrastructure and meeting the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable people. If the USA moves in the direction of environment protection, peace and justice (although there are not many signs of this just now), it will help the USA and its people a lot, but in addition this will also help the entire world.
(The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Protecting Earth for Children, A Day in 2071 and Man over Machine. Courtesy: countercurrenst.org).
