Wildfire & Climate Crisis
The California fire season continues to expand and become more extreme due to the climate crisis.
The California fire season continues to expand and become more extreme due to the climate crisis.
“We’re getting hotter, drier air that makes fires easier to start. It makes the fuel much drier and the fires spread faster. They’re more intense, and they're more difficult to fight.” - UCLA Professor Glen MacDonald
“We’re getting hotter, drier air that makes fires easier to start. It makes the fuel much drier and the fires spread faster. They’re more intense, and they're more difficult to fight.” - UCLA Professor Glen MacDonald
“The significant reduction of the use of fire by Indigenous peoples following colonisation, the introduction of grazing livestock (which reduced fine fuels and decreased surface fire activity), aggressive fire suppression in the 20th century, and early timber harvest practices (which removed large trees and increased surface fuels) resulted in stand densification by fire-intolerant species and increased fuel loading in some California forests, leading to increasingly severe fires in these ecosystems,” - Authors of Drivers of California’s changing wildfires: a state-of-the-knowledge synthesis
“The significant reduction of the use of fire by Indigenous peoples following colonisation, the introduction of grazing livestock (which reduced fine fuels and decreased surface fire activity), aggressive fire suppression in the 20th century, and early timber harvest practices (which removed large trees and increased surface fuels) resulted in stand densification by fire-intolerant species and increased fuel loading in some California forests, leading to increasingly severe fires in these ecosystems,” - Authors of Drivers of California’s changing wildfires: a state-of-the-knowledge synthesis
Today's wildland firefighters and forestry professionals are confronted with the impacts of a century of fire suppression and accumulation of climate change impacts. In particular, increased intensity and frequency of of drought, extreme temperatures, and extreme rainfall and wind events all create uniquely volatile landscapes for wildfire.
Climate Change: Why is it important to engage more non-traditional and underrepresented communities?
Climate Change: Why is it important to engage more non-traditional and underrepresented communities?
Clips from Season 7, Episode 4 of W. Kamau Bell's United Shades of America, "California is Burning":
United Shades_CalFire&FFRP Clips.mov83.6% of wildland firefighters are white, 78.7% are male
83.6% of wildland firefighters are white, 78.7% are male
