#megafires — Public Fediverse posts

Low fire risk landscapes
Challenging the norm of prescribed burning

* "Research shows long-unburnt forests act to limit fire without human intervention – even as the climate changes."

"Would it be worth removing the short-term defence of prescribed burning to bring forests back to a less flammable state?"

"In our new study, we examined whether phasing out prescribed burning could help Australian forests endure climate change. The answer was clear: it’s entirely possible to stop the cycle of fire feeding more fire, and help forests endure new climatic conditions."
>>
https://theconversation.com/in-1939-a-royal-commission-found-burning-forests-leads-to-more-bushfires-but-this-cycle-of-destruction-can-be-stopped-269099

* Are the alternative ecosystem states produced by positive fire-flammability feedbacks reversible? Philip J Zylstra and David B Lindenmayer 2025 Environ. Res. Lett. 20 124037DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/ae18e7
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ae18e7
#fires #bushfires #Megafires #PrescribedBurning #BritishColonialism #pastoralism #loggingImpacts #climate #GHG #forests #destruction #biodiversity #ecosystems #conservation

Forests, roads and mega fires
"More roads are associated with more fires"

"A problem arises when forest managers look at forests exclusively “through the lens of timber and dollar signs on trees."
>>
https://grist.org/wildfires/wildfire-prevention-roads-trump-repeal-roadless-rule-usda-forest-service/

Char Miller, "Burn Scars: A Documentary History of Fire Suppression, from Colonial Origins to the Resurgence of Cultural Burning" (Oregon State UP, 2024)
>>
https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/burn-scars
#LoggingImpacts #LoggingIndustry #NSWLogging #roads #bushfires #timber #extractivism #thinning #PrescribedBurns #FireSuppression #megafires #colonialism #CounterNarratives #IndigenousPeoples #CulturalBurning #ecology

Forests, roads and mega fires
"More roads are associated with more fires"

"A problem arises when forest managers look at forests exclusively “through the lens of timber and dollar signs on trees."
>>
https://grist.org/wildfires/wildfire-prevention-roads-trump-repeal-roadless-rule-usda-forest-service/

Char Miller, "Burn Scars: A Documentary History of Fire Suppression, from Colonial Origins to the Resurgence of Cultural Burning" (Oregon State UP, 2024)
>>
https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/burn-scars
#LoggingImpacts #LoggingIndustry #NSWLogging #roads #bushfires #timber #extractivism #thinning #PrescribedBurns #FireSuppression #megafires #colonialism #CounterNarratives #IndigenousPeoples #CulturalBurning #ecology

Forests, roads and mega fires
"More roads are associated with more fires"

"A problem arises when forest managers look at forests exclusively “through the lens of timber and dollar signs on trees."
>>
https://grist.org/wildfires/wildfire-prevention-roads-trump-repeal-roadless-rule-usda-forest-service/

Char Miller, "Burn Scars: A Documentary History of Fire Suppression, from Colonial Origins to the Resurgence of Cultural Burning" (Oregon State UP, 2024)
>>
https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/burn-scars
#LoggingImpacts #LoggingIndustry #NSWLogging #roads #bushfires #timber #extractivism #thinning #PrescribedBurns #FireSuppression #megafires #colonialism #CounterNarratives #IndigenousPeoples #CulturalBurning #ecology

Forests, roads and mega fires
"More roads are associated with more fires"

"A problem arises when forest managers look at forests exclusively “through the lens of timber and dollar signs on trees."
>>
https://grist.org/wildfires/wildfire-prevention-roads-trump-repeal-roadless-rule-usda-forest-service/

Char Miller, "Burn Scars: A Documentary History of Fire Suppression, from Colonial Origins to the Resurgence of Cultural Burning" (Oregon State UP, 2024)
>>
https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/burn-scars
#LoggingImpacts #LoggingIndustry #NSWLogging #roads #bushfires #timber #extractivism #thinning #PrescribedBurns #FireSuppression #megafires #colonialism #CounterNarratives #IndigenousPeoples #CulturalBurning #ecology

Forests, roads and mega fires
"More roads are associated with more fires"

"A problem arises when forest managers look at forests exclusively “through the lens of timber and dollar signs on trees."
>>
https://grist.org/wildfires/wildfire-prevention-roads-trump-repeal-roadless-rule-usda-forest-service/

Char Miller, "Burn Scars: A Documentary History of Fire Suppression, from Colonial Origins to the Resurgence of Cultural Burning" (Oregon State UP, 2024)
>>
https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/burn-scars
#LoggingImpacts #LoggingIndustry #NSWLogging #roads #bushfires #timber #extractivism #thinning #PrescribedBurns #FireSuppression #megafires #colonialism #CounterNarratives #IndigenousPeoples #CulturalBurning #ecology

The discussion on #megafires continues ...
Megafire (>10,000 ha), Gigafire (>100,000 ha). Terafire (>1,000,000 ha)
Do these definitions serve a useful purpose? - Time will tell ...

Megafire—you may not like it, but you cannot avoid it. Linley et al. #GEB
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/geb.70032

Megaflood, megatsunami, megaquake, megafauna, megacity, megaspore, megalith, megadune, ...

Capitalism Eating Itself by Fueling Climate Mayhem, Warns Capitalist

If humanity stays on current course, warns top insurer, the "financial sector as we know it ceases to function. And with it, capitalism as we know it ceases to be viable."

According to GüntherThallinger, a former top executive at Germany's branch of the consulting giant #McKinsey & Company and currently a board member of #Allianz SE, one of the largest insurance companies in the world, the #ClimateCrisis is on a path to destroy #capitalism as we know it.

"We are fast approaching temperature levels—1.5C, 2C, 3C—where #insurers will no longer be able to offer coverage for many" of the risks associated with the #climate crisis, Thallinger writes in a recent post highlighted Thursday by #TheGuardian.

There is no way to "adapt" to temperatures beyond human tolerance. There is limited adaptation to #megafires, other than not building near #forests. Whole cities built on flood plains cannot simply pick up and move uphill. And as temperatures continue to rise, adaptation itself becomes economically unviable.

Once we reach 3°C of warming, the situation locks in. Atmospheric energy at this level will persist for 100+ years due to carbon cycle inertia and the absence of scalable industrial carbon removal technologies. There is no known pathway to return to pre-2°C conditions. (See: #IPCC AR6, 2023; NASA Earth Observatory: "The Long-Term Warming Commitment")

At that point, risk cannot be transferred (no insurance), risk cannot be absorbed (no public capacity), and risk cannot be adapted to (physical limits exceeded). That means no more mortgages, no new real estate development, no long-term investment, no financial stability. The financial sector as we know it ceases to function. And with it, capitalism as we know it ceases to be viable.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/capitalism-climate

https://lundi.am/Consomption-du-capitalisme
@lundimatin
#ia_generative #megafires

Community Efforts to Care for Animals During Climate Disasters:
Experiences and Recommendations from an Australian Bushfire Affected Region

"Formal disaster prevention, preparation, risk management, and response remain highly anthropocentric, with non-human animals afforded minimal attention, resourcing, and support. This article reports on informal community efforts to care for non-human animals during and after the 2019/2020 “Black Summer” bushfires in Australia, when over three billion animals were killed, injured, or displaced."

"Key findings are that:
human communities understood and treated non-human animals as part of their communities; humans went to extraordinary lengths to care for and rescue animals; these efforts were largely invisible to, and unsupported—even condemned—by formal emergency management agencies. We conclude that human-centric emergency and disaster management policies are at odds with community values and behaviors. We argue that disaster management must evolve to accommodate and support the realities of community-based rather than individual-based approaches, and must simultaneously expand to consider communities as multispecies."
>>
Sturman, A., Celermajer, D., MacDonald, F. et al. Community Efforts to Care for Animals During Climate Disasters: Experiences and Recommendations from an Australian Bushfire Affected Region. Int J Disaster Risk Sci (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13753-025-00623-8
#bushfires #fires #FossilFuels #ClimateBreakdown #care #biodiversity #wildlife #NSW #megafires #2019Bushfires #BlackSummer #disaster #preparation #pets #property #livestock #anthropocentrism #multispecies #community #values

Care for non-human animals during and after the 2019/2020 “Black Summer” bushfires in Australia

"In fighting these fires, authorities focused almost entirely on protecting human lives and property...The role of rescuing and caring for domesticated and wild animals fell almost entirely to community groups and individual carers, who stepped up to fill the gap at significant cost to themselves – financially, emotionally and sometimes even at a risk to their safety.The standard view in Australia is that only humans matter in the face of bushfires. While some guidance on disaster preparation talks about how to protect pets such as cats and dogs, wildlife carers, farmers and horse owners often found themselves facing incoming fires with little or no information or support."
>>
https://theconversation.com/as-the-black-summer-megafires-neared-people-rallied-to-save-wildlife-and-domestic-animals-but-it-came-at-a-real-cost-248432

"69% of Australian households own a pet.">>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/29/the-veterinarian-shortage-in-regional-australia-is-not-a-looming-crisis-were-already-in-it
#bushfires #fires #FossiFuels #NSW #megafires #2019Bushfires #BlackSummer #disaster #preparation #property #IntroducedPets #livestock #pets #dogs #cats #menagerie

"C'est insensé, je n'arrive pas à trouver un endroit où aller. C'est complètement fou, raconte cette styliste de 50 ans, derrière ses lunettes de soleil. Nous avons déposé une demande pour une maison à Venice qui était annoncée à 17 000 dollars par mois, et ils nous ont dit que si nous ne payions pas 30 000 dollars, nous ne l'aurions pas. Ils m'ont dit qu'ils ont des gens prêts à surenchérir, et à payer cash. »"

A 50 ans il n'est pas trop tard pour découvrir le principe du capitalisme.
#Megafires #dereglementclimatique #fascismefossile
Incendies à Los Angeles: les rescapés sans abri confrontés à l'explosion des prix de l'immobilier
https://www.rfi.fr/fr/am%C3%A9riques/20250114-incendies-%C3%A0-los-angeles-les-rescap%C3%A9s-sans-abri-confront%C3%A9s-%C3%A0-l-explosion-des-prix-de-l-immobilier

A few weeks before the L.A. fires, @lemonde published my review of Fire Weather from John Vaillant, L'Âge du feu in french #lafires #losangeles #megafires #fireweather #climatechange #johnvaillant
https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2024/12/18/l-age-du-feu-histoire-d-un-embrasement_6455770_3232.html

My review for @lemonde of « L’Age du feu », Fire Weather in english, by John Vaillant. A good and informative book about how humanity lost control on fire after taming It #JohnVaillant #fire #megafires #lagedufeu #fireweather #climatechange #fortmcmurray #lemonde
https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2024/12/18/l-age-du-feu-histoire-d-un-embrasement_6455770_3232.html

Are industrial scale burns incinerating Australian biodiversity?

"The “industrial” scale burns which are designed to “process landscapes as efficiently as possible” are known to frequently kill – in 2022, Victorian authorities accidentally incinerated several koalas when they set a forest alight, and evidence suggests fires set in Tasmania have killed endangered devils."

"A complete “rethink” of fire management practices by state authorities" is needed.
>>
https://au.news.yahoo.com/rare-aussie-bird-under-threat-over-common-tree-practice-catastrophic-061116403.html

Driscoll, D.A., Macdonald, K.J., Gibson, R.K. et al. Biodiversity impacts of the 2019–2020 Australian megafires. Nature (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08174-6
#Biodiversity #bushfires #fires #megafires #PyroConvectiveStorms #incineration #pileburning #sprawl #destruction #wildlife #birds #GlossyBlackCockatoos #koalas #CulturalBurning #ExtinctionCrisis #FossilFuels

Megafires - A rethink is needed

"We should not forget that Australia’s 2019-20 megafires were the predictable consequence of climate change.The alternative fire management approaches we suggest will likely fail if climate change continues unabated.

"Bushfire management agencies aim to reduce fire risks through frequent fuel-reduction burning...But our research suggests this practice, which increases fire frequency, may create larger disruptions to ecosystems when big bushfires occur...Alternative approaches to large-scale prescribed burning are required.">>
https://theconversation.com/catastrophic-declines-massive-data-haul-reveals-why-so-many-plants-and-animals-suffer-after-fire-241691
#bushfires #megafires #BlackSummer #incineration #biodiversity #FossilFuels #ClimateEmergency #PrescribedBurning #RightWay #fire

31-Oct-2024
Indigenous population expansion and cultural burning reduced shrub cover that fuels megafires in Australia

#Indigenous burning practices in #Australia once halved shrub cover, reducing available fuels and limiting #wildfire intensity for thousands of years, but the removal of these practices following European #colonization has led to an increase in the tinder that has fueled today’s catastrophic #megafires, researchers report.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1062754 #science #ecology

Lessons from another settler society about current fire practices, land management and logging practices: With more good fire comes less feral fire.

"To understand modern fire policy in California requires an analysis of California’s settler attitude toward the more-than-human world. This attitude relies heavily on the invented concepts embedded in the words nature and wilderness."

“The white man sure ruined this country, it’s turned back to wilderness.”
Sierra Miwok elder James Rust, quoted by M. Kat Anderson

Excerpts of The State of Fire: Why California Burns by Obi Kaufmann. Heyday Books, in Los Angeles Review of Books September 15, 2024
>>
https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/what-then-is-natural/
#bushfires #CulturalBurning #FossilFuels #MegaFires #gigafire #arson #ClimateBreakdown #Cryosphere #droughts #smoke #loggingIndustry #LoggingImpacts #NSWLogging #FCNSW #harm #WUI #sprawl #cars #extractivism #denial #IndigenousPeoples #ecosystems #biodiversity #SettlerSociety #mindset #BelloBook

As summer heat arrives in August and they are expanding fossil fuels.
It is time to be prepared for mega fires in Australia.

"Australia’s unprecedented bushfires of 2019 to 2020 burned an area larger than the United Kingdom, killed at least 33 people, killed or displaced close to 3 billion animals, and destroyed the habitats of more than 500 species."

For 60,000 Years, Australia’s First Nations Have Put Fire to Good Use.
Watch “Burnt Country”, Kirsten Slemint's documentary on cultural burning in Australia.
>>
https://e360.yale.edu/features/2024-film-contest-second-place-australia-indigenous-fire
#bushfires #IndigenousBurning #CulturalBurning #FossilFuels #MegaFires #ExtremeHeat #biodiversity #koalas #extinction #Australia

Oregon’s wildfire season is off to an explosive start,
with more than 1 million acres charred in less than a month,
as experts warn that extreme heat and unusual lightning strikes are creating
“catastrophic conditions” for fires to ignite and spread.

The state is currently home to the largest wildfire burning in the US.

By Friday afternoon, the #Durkee fire had burned nearly 290,000 acres (117,000 hectares)
and was only 20% contained.

The fire had forced evacuations,
shut down a major interstate highway and even produced its own weather system.

The Durkee fire is one of more than 100 lightning-ignited fires, including four “#megafires”,
that have started over the past week and are currently raging in the eastern and central parts of Oregon.
A megafire is defined by National Interagency Fire Center as blazes that have burned more than 100,000 acres (40,000 hectares).

The more than 1 million acres (405,000 hectares) charred so far have already 🔸quadrupled last year’s total
🔸and are approaching the massive 2020 season, which saw 1.2 million acres burned.

The fire season typically runs until autumn rains arrive in mid-September,
but bad years can see blazes burn into October.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/27/oregon-wildfire-season?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Our consortium partner @eldiarioes traveled to areas in Greece, Portugal, and Spain affected by three of the worst mega-fires recorded in Europe in recent years to understand what lessons we have learned and whether we are better prepared for such increasingly frequent phenomena.

Read what they found out here:

https://displayeurope.eu/article/mega-fires-are-burning-across-europe-are-we-prepared/

#megafires #spain #greece #portugal #eu #climatechange #europe

52,000 km2 of 'long unburnt' Australian habitat has vanished in 40 years

Fire regimes are changing across the globe, stoked by #climate and land-use change. Recent #megafires in #Australia, #Brazil, #Canada & #UnitedStates epitomize the dire consequences of shifting fire regimes for #humanity and #biodiversity alike.
We found areas of long unburnt vegetation are shrinking. Meanwhile, areas of recently burnt vegetation are growing. And fires are burning more frequently.

https://phys.org/news/2024-04-puff-square-kilometers-unburnt-australian.html

As we wake up to a smokey morning as #Australia prepares for another #bushfire season, I'm remembering the 2019-20 #megafires, when the smoke was as thick as soup.

https://pixelfed.social/p/Coolmccool/606626456171101771

#climatemergency #WhyAreWeOpeningUPMoreCoalmines

The 2023 edition of CIRES' Spheres magazine is out!

Explore recent CIRES work around #water resources, environmental futures, #ozone, an innovative classroom lesson about #megafires, and more!

Read on ➡️ bit.ly/CIRES-Spheres2023

Educators from CIRES and CUBoulder worked with teachers and a scientist to develop an innovative #lesson about #megafires. Now, this "Data Puzzle" is helping students dive into the causes & patterns associated with these destructive events.

Read the story: https://cires.colorado.edu/news/students-teachers-puzzle-out-story-behind-megafires

Good analysis of the unprecedented damage to #wetlands and #mangroves during the 2019-20 Black Summer #megafires #fireecology https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/emr.12572

@itnewsbot I hear you, but I can't help but think of trees as standing kindling at this point in the process of abrupt #climatechange - the #wildfires are turning into #megafires now.