Burning Matters

Forest fires seem a rather dry topic (excuse the pun) for a blog. But the libertarian & scientist in me find them utterly fascinating debate-food.

From any perspective, fires wreak havoc, sure. But man, with his obsessive urge to gain control on just about anything around him, started to adopt a "Zero Tolerance" approach to fires as far back as the 1890's. Even forest fires sparked by natural causes (such as lightning) were instantly doused by immense man-made watersheds.

Why man never seems inclined to stop and ponder the "why's" of certain natural phenomena, I will never know. Surely it is obvious that nature, without external interference, has evolved into some sort of fragile balance where everything has its purpose? And that forest fires, in their own right, are likely to serve a purpose in this fragile ecosystem of ours? If forest fires DON't occur, old trees do not get replaced by younger trees. Dead wood, twigs, leaves etc... no longer get incinerated on a regular basis and start to accumulate. Thus yielding far higher burnable fuels in case a fire DOES strike. The natural dynamics which keep forests in a healthy natural state, require forest fires. It's as simple as that.

Trying to prevent forest fires from happening is, to put it crudely, like trying to stop earthquakes from happening. Whereas we all know earthquakes are merely a necessary release of pressure on faultlines as the earth's tectonic plates move. They restore balance.

I have to admit that the whole twist in the forest fires in Spain and Portugal at the moment made me smirk. It seems like most of the forest fires there have been the result of arson. Pyromaniacs, people venting grievances against forest owners, people with commercial stakes in the firefighting business and/or land speculators seem to be the culprits.

Isn't that ironic? Despite all the efforts of man to curb the devastation forest fires cause to the human population, it is now man himself that sets them alight. The most striking examples I thought were the firefighters that were arrested because they set some forests on fire, just so they could strike up a financial bonus at the end of the summer. And the developpers, keen to get their hands on areas that were protected against building expansion by governement rules.

It seems nature, by way of man's greed, has found a way to restore balance yet again.