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Our penguin hearts go out to those around the world struggling with the effects of forest fires.

Mitch Mendler, a firefighter in San Diego, California said: “It was like Armageddon – it looked like the end of the world.”

Photo – AP


This is how the Washington Post described it:

Fires raged across Southern California on an epic scale for a third day Tuesday, with flames as high as 100 feet stoked by extremes of wind, heat, dryness and — on the suburban frontier where some of the worst blazes roared — the human impulse to live just a little farther out …

That boundary defined the topography of the unfolding disaster. Two of the four counties — San Bernardino and Riverside — burning most fiercely this week are among the fastest-growing in the United States, bedroom communities that push what ecologists call the “urban/wildland interface.”

The move into the hills is for homes that are more affordable, but they are also more vulnerable. An inventory by University of Wisconsin researchers found that about two-thirds of new building in Southern California over the past decade was on land susceptible to wildfires, said Mike Davis, a historian at the University of California at Irvine and author of a social history of Los Angeles.

Even though people have chosen to live a little further out, to push that urban/wildland interface – what an odd word “interface” – they obviously made the choice without thinking too clearly about the dangers:

The blazes outstripped the 2003 fires that many in San Diego County considered a once-in-a-lifetime event, and that caught officials and residents flatfooted. The resulting controversy brought calls for reform, but San Diego voters declined to fund improvements for the fire department, the smallest per capita for any large city in the country, said Steve Erie, a political scientist at the University of California at San Diego who is writing a book titled “Plundered Paradise.”

Further north, the Malibu Hills smolder – Photo: Damian Dovarganes, AP


On October 25, 2007, Time Magazine wrote:

The flames consumed more than 400,000 acres (162,000 hectares), destroyed more than 2,000 houses and forced the temporary evacuation of nearly 1 million people — the biggest mass migration in the U.S. since Hurricane Katrina, and far more than were evacuated during the 2003 San Diego wildfires, previously considered California’s worst.

But it is not just the human victims who will suffer because of Fire. There are the wildlands and the wildlife. AP tells this side of the story:

The wind-driven infernos that are scarring vast swaths of Southern California’s landscape may leave more than just a temporary path of destruction when they are finally extinguished.

The wildfires could leave a legacy of environmental devastation that will be evident for years to come, scientists say, especially in areas that have been scorched several times recently. Some of the damage may never be reversed …

Small birds, rabbits and other animals dependent on California’s rapidly disappearing native vegetation will struggle to maintain a foothold, while some endangered species will find themselves locked into increasingly imperiled islands of refuge.

Meanwhile the fires burn elsewhere around the world. There is a major drought in Australia. As temperatures hit record highs, water suppllies hit record lows. Emily Sohn describes the situation:

Step off a plane almost anywhere in Australia, and one of the first things you’ll notice is water—or rather, the absence of it. In every public bathroom in Melbourne, signs remind people to be sparing with the faucet. In Brisbane, short showers are required by law. And throughout southern Australia, everyone using a toilet is supposed to choose the alternate-flush option …

Australia Fire – Photo: CSIRO

The Australian continent has experienced dry spells since ancient times, but the length and severity of the current crisis have surprised even the most weathered climate experts. Australia’s population has grown rapidly in recent decades, and there just isn’t enough water to go around anymore.

Reservoir Molonglo River, New South Wales – Photo: CSIRO


Where have we heard that before – and there just isn’t enough water to go around anymore! The United States of America. Brian Skoloff writes for AP:

An epic drought in Georgia threatens the water supply for millions. Florida doesn’t have nearly enough water for its expected population boom. The Great Lakes are shrinking. Upstate New York’s reservoirs have dropped to record lows. And in the West, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is melting faster each year. Across America, the picture is critically clear — the nation’s freshwater supplies can no longer quench its thirst.

The government projects that at least 36 states will face water shortages within five years because of a combination of rising temperatures, drought, population growth, urban sprawl, waste and excess.

And sadly, closer to our home, the Amazon continues to burn. According to Tom Phillips in the UK Guardian, “Government satellites recorded more than 16,000 fires across Brazil in August, the overwhelming majority in the Amazon.”

The Amazon burns – Photo: Daniel Beltra, Greenpeace






“God gave Noah the rainbow sign,
No more water, the fire next time!”