Friendly reminder that wildfires are natural here. They're complicated by climate change, but maybe not how we assume.https://twitter.com/aurabogado/status/748603714898788352 …
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Ask indigenous peoples of Southern Cali: brush fires were traditionally allowed to burn, as they naturally do, in small and long fires.
As settlers expanded their territory, they illogically built homes in brush fire land. Basically building neighborhoods in carpet bombs.
And they demanded fire departments suppress nature -- that is, they demanded fire suppression. So we constantly put out small fires.
But nature can only be suppressed for so long. You put out small brush fires for years, only to get a MASSIVE out-of-control fire later.
Climate change spurs droughts like the one we just experienced in Southern California. That can make fire season longer. However....
A prolonged drought, like the one we'd been under for so long, means less water and therefore less vegetation. Less brush that burns.
We finally got rain this year. Drought is officially over. Yay! Now what? We got a lot of water, which means more vegetation. Oh oh.
All that rain means the fire season may have gotten a later start this year. But it also means a lot more brush. Which... naturally burns.
Lots of well-meaning white climate folks are tweeting about Southern Cali fires this summer. The assumption is climate change = wildfires.
It's a little more complicated than that. Let's be nuanced. Let's understand that wildfires are... wild. Let's listen to indigenous peoples.
Sounds eerily similar to those who build right at the shore, forgetting that storms hit every winter. "Save my house from the ocean - NOW!"
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