California wildfires, electricity shutoffs and our troubled energy future

By Kurt Cobb, Resource Insights

Most of the news surrounding the electricity shutoffs in California—done to avert the ignition of additional wildfires by aging electrical infrastructure—has focused on two things: climate change and the greedy, incompetent management of Pacific Gas & Electric. Missing in this discussion is the broad neglect of the complex infrastructure of the United States and possibly other wealthy nations.

Saving the Amazon: What You Can Do

By Mark Heley, Esperanza Project

The Indigenous peoples of Amazonia have lived in a symbiotic way with the rainforest for millenia. They are the keepers of deep knowledge about the ecosystems they live within and are indispensable to its effective protection. Protecting the rights of indigenous people and their land claims in the Amazon can be one of the most effective ways of halting deforestation.

Bolivia is on Fire, Too — And You’re Part of the Problem

By Kayla Mi-Kyung Vandervort, Esperanza Project

Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro isn’t the only culprit behind the fires currently raging across the Amazon at a rate of a football field per minute. With the high demand for meat, soy, and petroleum in developed countries, we are directly fuelling these fires in the Amazon basin. There is much that we can do to help turn this crisis around.

The Open Amazon and its Enemies: a Call for Action and Optimism

By Francesc Badia I Dalmases, Open Democracy

The Amazon is so key to the future of our planet that it has become a hot issue of geopolitics. And, we are not only talking about the physical environment. We are talking about the future of the people- those who live there and us.

It’s not Just Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest that’s Ablaze – Bolivian Fires are Threatening People and Wildlife

By Claire F.R. Wordley, The Conversation

Up to 800,000 hectares of the unique Chiquitano forest were burned to the ground in Bolivia between August 18 and August 23. That’s more forest than is usually destroyed across the country in two years.

Transition as Wildfire Adaptation in California

By Chris Nelder, Energy Transition Show

We are fortunate to have Michael Wara as our guest in this episode—a bona fide expert on the subject who is a member of the state-appointed wildfire commission in California—to help us think through this complex web of issues and understand how to start plotting a new path into the future.

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The Amazon Is Dying and Bolsonaro Is Fanning the Flames

By Dahr Jamail, TruthOut

And now, the Amazon is on fire. Wildfires are incinerating the rainforest at a record pace, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE as it is commonly referenced). INPE recently stated that there has been an 80 percent increase in wildfires in the Amazon, compared to the same period from last year.

Understanding the UK’s Recent Spike in Wildfires

By Thomas Smith, Carbon Brief

The unprecedented UK wildfire seasons in 2018 and 2019 have raised key questions about how fire risk in the UK is changing and how we can prepare for them in future.

Climate Change is Fueling Wildfires around the World. Can Indigenous Knowledge Help us Manage Them?

By Viki Cramer, Ensia

Combining traditional knowledge with modern science and technology could reduce loss of property and human life from out-of-control blazes.

How White Colonizers Set Us Up for Uncontrollable Wildfires

By Louise Dunlap, YES! magazine

But I want us to ask Indigenous people to take the reins themselves and help get us back on track with fire. I want them to take care of their own lands once again, as the Karuk people are doing up north on the Klamath River.

Entire Cities Evacuate as Hellish Wildfires Whip through California

By Eric Holthaus, Grist

A trio of rapidly expanding wildfires are burning in California, marking the latest in a string of harrowing climate-related disasters in America.

Tree Teachings: How Forests and Wildfires Are Critically Linked

By Andrew Nikiforuk, The Tyee

In British Columbia alone, wildfires released between 150 and 200 megatonnes of carbon dioxide in 2017. That’s more than twice the volume created by human activities in the province.