The Fires of 2012

This summer, fires in both Colorado and now, Oklahoma, have burnt both landscape and homes. As is the norm with fires, they were declared tragedies. Drought and climate change are blamed for both, but there is another factor, and that is human behavior. We have allowed ourselves to build in fire-prone places, regardless of cost and without thought.  Last year, a somewhat unknown but very important Minnesotan died, Roger Kennedy. Kennedy, best described as a polymath, wrote many volumes, but perhaps one of his most important books with multiple lessons was "Wildfire and Americans", which examined fire policy and advocated changes in how and where we build. Fire, as he stated, is as naturally occurring as rain, but Americans choose to ignore it. We build in places the equivalent of floodplains out of materials that burn, then pay the cost and blame nature. And noone who chooses to do this ever pays the full cost; instead we all pay for their mistakes. Governments, namely us, instead pay for our own idiocy, whether directly or indirectly. Fire is a problem of human choice, and not a mistake of government or agency action. .