Forged in Ignorance

Two of the deadliest fires in recorded history were the Midwest’s Peshtigo and Hinkley fires in the 1800’s. The causes of both were attributed to unusually dry weather and reckless industrial behaviors.

The Peshtigo fire swept through northeastern Wisconsin and killed over 1200. It’s believed rail workers began a brush fire that got out of control. Survivors recalled the inferno moved “like a tornado”.

Following two months of drought, the Hinkley fire raced through Minnesota’s logging areas, killing 418.

As we await the fate of 1300 human beings unaccounted for in Maui, it’s incumbent for us to understand what went so horribly wrong.

Maui, like Peshtigo and Hinkley became industrialized. The lands were used for extraction of lumber and in the case of Maui, plantations usurped native lands. Those plantations gave way to hardy and flammable non-Native grasses, and undermined the natural wetland.

Add drought conditions and the ferocity of climatic winds and the results are devastating.

These disasters were forged in ignorance. They’re the result of economic development that has ignored indigenous people and have ruthlessly devoured native lands. Colonization overruns common sense with political power and capital.

The roots of these disasters were long in the making and driven by indifference. Today we are living the result of that indifference. But there are hopeful signs. A Montana judge recently handed a legal victory to young activists who sued the state for the right to live in a clean and healthy environment. The argument declared that the state’s support of fossil fuels undermined constitutional rights. The judge agreed.

Let us be the ones who boldly turn away from ignorance. Let us return the garden.

For more:

Vegetation Fuels Fires

Maui Was Once a Wetland