Incendiary Rhetoric: Climate Change, Wildfire, and Ecological Fire Management
Incendiary Rhetoric: Climate Change,Wildfire, and Ecological Fire Management is a guide intended to help forest and climate activists talk to broad audiences about wildfire in the era of climate change, in ways that are grounded in the best available fire and climate science and progressive fire management policy.
Run to the Water
Christmas turkey in Australia this year was served smoked, if not charred. In the final days of 2019 the increasingly familiar eerie visions of a day sky turned to night with embers flying in all directions were dished up on the people of New South Wales and Victoria, Australia. Sirens sounded out and residents were told to flee to the water…to the beaches. Many huddled together in small groups out in the sand, others staged a Dunkirk-style apocalyptic retreat under red skies onto the water in boats.
Forests, Wildfire and Climate Change
Wild re has been an integral part of western forests for thousands of years, but in recent decades con icts between people and re have increased dramatically. Climate change is bringing hotter, drier conditions to western forests, which is increasing re activity, and scientists predict that this trend will continue as the planet heats up. This guide is intended to help climate and forest activists understand the unique dynamics between forests, wild re, and climate so we can collectively chart a new path towards community resilience to the impacts of climate change. By modernizing our wild re policies, we can protect homes and communities while restoring the important role that re plays in the forest ecosystems of the American West.
A New Direction for California Wildfire Policy— Working from the Home Outward
Compiled by Douglas Bevington, Forest Director, Environment Now California Program
California’s state policies on wildfire need to change direction. The current policies are failing. They have not effectively protected homes, while they place dramatically increasing pressures on state and local budgets. Moreover, these policies are often based on notions about the role of fire in California’s ecosystems that are not supported by sound science and do not reflect the changing climate. These policies try to alter vast areas of forest in problematic ways through logging, when instead they should be focusing on helping communities safely co-exist with California’s naturally fire-dependent ecosystems by prioritizing effective fire-safety actions for homes and the zone right around them. This new direction—working from the home outward—can save lives and homes, save money, and produce jobs in a strategy that is better for natural ecosystems and the climate.
Hype Conversion Burn
The conversion of the Sims Prescribed Fire to the Grape (Wild)Fire brings up a scary ghost from the past.