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Wildfires

Flare Up Like A Forest Fire

August 30, 2019 Bue Rübner Hansen, Roarmag.org , ,
Watching the Amazon burn, it is hard not to feel despair. But we have to remind ourselves that social transformations can take off as rapidly as a forest fire. The climate and ecosystems all have tipping points. For instance, it is estimated that 20 percent tree loss in the Amazon will change rainfall conditions, and push the forest into irreversible decline. And as temperatures rise, the thawing permafrost will enter a positive feedback loop in which melting releases the greenhouse gas methane, heating the atmosphere and accelerating the disappearance of the permafrost.

Bolisonaro Is A Global Climate Criminal For Creating The Conditions For The Amazon Fires

August 29, 2019 By Peter Koenig, Globalresearch.ca , , ,
At the World Economic Forum (WEF) in January 2019 in Davos Switzerland, Bolsonaro made a sumptuous presentation, “We Are Building a New Brazil”. He outlined a program that put literally Brazil up for sale, and especially the Brazilian part of Amazonia. He was talking particularly about Brazil’s water resources, the world’s largest, and the rain forest – offering a huge potential for agricultural development and mining.

The Amazon’s Burning Past, Follow Their Lead & The Problem With #PlantATree

August 29, 2019 Eleanor Goldfield, Act Out , ,
A look at the understorey of the Amazon fires and the long history of colonialist destruction. If we want to protect the forest, we have to protect the people, and look to them for solutions outside the confines of a system that continues to wreak havoc on all living things. Next, Anne Petermann from Global Justice Ecology Project sits down with us for some straight talk on the reforestation trend, false solutions and important upcoming actions.

Climate Activists Are Building Power, Declare We Have An Emergency

August 26, 2019 Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese, Clearing the FOG. , , ,
Wildfires are raging around the world, creating a negative feedback loop for the climate by releasing greenhouse gases and destroying the forests' capacity to sequester carbon. The United States is on track to be the biggest producer of oil and gas in the 2020's. According to Global Witness, seven of the top ten producers of new fossil fuels are states in the US, with Texas producing nearly four times more than Canada and almost ten times more than Russia. Democratic Party leadership is preventing a presidential debate on climate and is suppressing efforts to develop a Green New Deal. Scientists say that we don't have any time left to take action on the climate. We should have made changes decades ago. In response, climate activism is escalating. We speak with Greg Schwedock of the Extinction Rebellion in New York City about actions being planned this fall and the current political environment.

Fines For Violating Environment Dropped Since Bolsonaro Elected

August 26, 2019 Staff, Telesurenglish.net , , ,
Brazil’s environment agency data showed that fines for environmental violations decreased since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro took office in January. From January to Aug. 23, the fines dropped to a third of what it was during the same period last year while fires in Brazil increased by 84 percent. The data of the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) showed the lowest number of fines handed out for violating environment. Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 23 a total number of 6,895 fines were handed out while in 2018, during the same period...

Protest At Brazilian Embassy Over Amazon Rainforest Fires

August 25, 2019 Maeve Campbell, EuroNews. , , ,
Environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion has organised a protest outside London’s Brazilian embassy at short notice in response to the burning of the Amazon. Several hundred activists peacefully protested in front of the embassy as a public demonstration designed to put pressure on Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. In an Instagram post shared just yesterday, Extinction Rebellion, more commonly known as XR, posted a chilling animation of a burning pair of lungs with details of today's event underneath. “FRIDAY AT 11, YOUR NEAREST BRAZILIAN EMBASSY. We gather in outrage, in grief and in despair outside the Brazilian embassy tomorrow.”

The Amazon Rainforest Is Burning As Bolsonaro Fans The Flames

August 24, 2019 Staff, Pagina 12 , ,
Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE), confirmed with satellites what environmentalist organizations around the world had been announcing since President Jair Bolsonaro took office; the Amazon, often called the “Lungs of the World,” is in danger. Between January and August, 72,843 intermittent wildfires have been registered in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest due to the “development policy” undertaken by President Jair Bolsonaro in matters of agriculture and mining. Non-governmental organizations used the hashtag #PrayForAmazonia in the different social media throughout the week to try...

Bolivia Orders World’s Largest Air Tanker To Combat Amazon Fires

August 23, 2019 Staff, Telesurenglish.net , ,
Bolivia’s President Evo Morales announced on Wednesday that Bolivia had contracted a Boeing 747 ‘Supertanker’ to help extinguish huge forest fires in the Amazon have that spilled over from Brazil. By Wednesday evening, the government confirmed that the tanker is arriving in the country and will be operational on Friday. The ‘Supertanker’ can carry more water than any other aircraft in the world, capable of flying with 115, 000 liters, equivalent to a 100 regular air tankers. Prior to the tanker's arrival, the military will fly planes over the region to assess where exactly the tanker should focus. 

Woosley Fire: Sampling In The Wake Of Disaster

August 3, 2019 Staff, Fairewinds.org , ,
During 2018, California was racked by the most devastating series of deadly forest fires in its history. While each of these events led to a tragic loss of lives, wildlife, homes, and entire communities, the Woolsey Fire is of particular interest and concern to Fairewinds Energy Education. The Woolsey fire burned nearly one hundred thousand acres across Los Angeles and Ventura counties during the month of November.  While the fire is now out, people all over California have contacted us to ask questions and express concerns about the possible migration of radioactivity from the Woolsey Fire.

Most Important 2018 Environmental Stories, Point To Our Work In 2019

January 4, 2019 Maureen Nandini Mitra, Earthisland.org , ,
I don’t know about you, but it to seems to me as though 2018 swept by in a blur of mostly dismal news. As I began drawing up our annual list of the most important environmental stories of the year at the Journal, which, no surprise, skews on the negative side, I couldn’t help but note that even outside the environmental news cycle, the pace of unhappy developments has been unrelenting this past year. From tragic mass shootings, to migrant children being forcefully separated from their families at the border, to Brett Kavanagh’s Supreme Court appointment process that was triggering for so many sexual abuse victims, to the endless chipping away at our democracy by Trump and his cohort...

Confronting The Carbon Capitalists

November 23, 2018 Seattle IWW, Itsgoingdown.org , ,
Northwest forests, once some of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, have been clear-cut and laden with biocides. Complex interrelationships have been smashed with saws and machinery to make way for monoculture “working forests” devoid of biodiversity. Decades of fire suppression by the Forest Service on behalf of timber companies have left trees to grow on each other like matchsticks waiting to be lit. In the face of all of this, liberals, true to form, have resorted to self-flagellation and hand-wringing. The New York Times Magazine’s recent piece, “Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change” by Nathaniel Rich, places the blame of climate change and ecocide squarely at the foot of an undefined human nature.

The Mainstream Media Is Lying About The California Fires

November 22, 2018 By Lee Camp, Truthdig.com , , ,
I don’t like accurately predicting the future. But it happens to me sometimes. And it’s never a good thing. Not once have I predicted that I would stumble upon a great sum of money or that a friendly squirrel would mysteriously leave a fresh, delicious scone on my windowsill. No, the things I’ve said that have come true years later have always been utterly awful. And the latest one has to do with California. This week, Donald Trump has continued to blame the horrific fires in California on forest mismanagement—basically saying that if the parks service had just raked up a few more dry leaves, then countless people, homes and buildings would not have been incinerated. I unintentionally predicted this kind of idiocy. I said something similar in a 2011 stand-up comedy album titled “Chaos For The Weary.”

PG&E: Don’t Break it Up. Take It Over

November 22, 2018 Johanna Bozuwa, Commondreams.org , ,
There is strong evidence that the wildfires raging through California right now—killing at least 80 people, with at least an additional 1,000 missing as of November 18—have been sparked at least in part by the large investor-owned monopoly utility, PG&E. Further, PG&E’s apparent negligence and its consequences aren’t new. Cal Fire found that three separate wildfires across the state in 2017 were caused by PG&E, and the utility could be liable for up to $12 billion in damages from more than 800 civil lawsuits. With that backdrop, PG&E teeters on the brink of bankruptcy, and the California Public Utility Commission is now thinking of breaking up the utility. But the commission shouldn’t stop at breaking up PG&E. The public should take it over.

Climate Change And Wildfires: The New Western Travesty

November 19, 2018 Joshua Frank, Counterpunch.org ,
As my wife Chelsea and I drove through Arizona on our annual pilgrimage from California to Montana, orange smoke billowed along the darkened horizon, signals of hearts shattered and landscapes scorched. Days earlier nineteen hotshot firefighters died together as they battled the intense blazes near the mountain town of Yarnell. It was the most lethal wildfire America had witnessed in 80 years. The Yarnell flames were so erratic and intense the team became suddenly trapped, and despite each of the men deploying their individual fire shelters, all fighting the flames that day perished. The lone survivor was out fetching a truck for his crew, only to return to the gruesome scene. It was the single deadliest incident for firefighters since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.

Investigations Point To Energy Corporation’s Negligence In California Wildfire

November 15, 2018 E.P. Milligan, Wsws.org , , , ,
An investigation is now underway that will assess the culpability of Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) in starting the Camp Fire, now the deadliest wildfire in the history of California. The company acknowledged Tuesday that it had submitted an “electric incident report” to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on November 8, moments before the wildfire broke out. The report detailed a power failure on a transmission line in Butte County at 6:15 a.m., 15 minutes before the fire was reported as starting in the same area. More than 100 people are still listed as missing by the Butte County Sheriff’s Office after the fire destroyed the town of Paradise, California Thursday morning.
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