Wildfire as Hyperobject
Colorado and the west have both been plagued by a historic wildfire season. The 3 largest wildfires in Colorado state history all occurred during the 2020 season. To comprehend the unprecedented nature of these tragic events requires us shifting our own perception.
It is horrible and tragic to fathom the hardship that people have suffered as a result of these fires and we may call them unprecedented. But what is the precedent for destruction of the life you have known. Losing everything in a massive fire will always be unprecedented.
To understand how fires are changing in the west we need to think of the entire wildfire season as a hyperobject. Just as climate change is a hyperopbject, so is wildfire.
It has been reported that as climate change continues to impact our planet the size, destruction and speed of wildfires will increase.
We saw this as the East Troublesome fire burned 100,000 acres in its first 24 hours. A perfect storm of exceptionally dry conditions in northern Colorado combined with high winds and forests decimated by pine beetle that left dead trees standing ready to burn. The three contributing factors can all be traced to changes i climate trends.
Many are still hesitant to say that global warming caused the extreme behavior and destruction of the East Troublesome fire but if we consider wildfire as a hyperobject, as in all wildfire, we can attempt to align correlation.
Climate change has increased the destructiveness of wildfire.
Right now thousands are displaced and are waiting to learn if they can return to a home or not.
These are the moments that are avoidable, preventable and are the tragedy of our inaction. These are the reasons why sustainable and radical environmental policy are necessary in our our cities, counties, states, and country.