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"Next Year's News This Week" World on fire: The Age of the Inferno and What We Can Do About It By Evan Anderson _______ Why Read: From the wildlands of the western United States to the rolling vineyards of Provence, we are engulfed in flames. This week, we dive into why the flames are reaching so high, and what we can do to attempt adaptation in the face of such fury. - era _______ I'd rather fight 100 structure fires than a wildfire. With a structure fire you know where your flames are, but in the woods it can move anywhere; it can come right up behind you. - Tom Watson, Pend Oreille County Fire District 4 [Washington] It is known that wildfires behave unpredictably - this is fundamental - but it is my experience that humans in the presence of wildfire are also likely to behave in aberrant and unpredictable ways. - Michael Leunig, Australian Poet and Cartoonist
The world is on fire. With each passing year, the accelerating climate apocalypse is exacerbating fire conditions faster than anyone had projected. Yes, we knew what was coming, but few foresaw just how fast these flames would run. Now, we face a new era of our own making. We have entered the Age of the Inferno. When I was a young man, I joined my local volunteer fire department. Beginning with wildland training and moving along to structural (the science and art of fighting fires in buildings) was a coterie of lessons in humanity's fragile, wobbling stance on this Earth. Tales of veteran crews of hotshots being brutally burned were drilled into us; they were grave enough to stay in one's mind for life. To this day, I stop for a moment of silence at memorials dedicated to those we have lost in this unending battle to remain safe from runaway flames. The bravery and courage of the men and women who fight our fires is unparalleled in our species outside of combat duty. But fire doesn't care. Of all the climate effects we have wrought upon ourselves, fire may be the most insidious. With greater and greater conflagrations becoming an ever-present factor across much of the world, especially in the warmer months, this seemed an apt time to address in these pages why this is happening, what we're likely to see down the road, and how to better protect ourselves from the growing threat of flames.
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