#Fires, #Fascism and the Loss of #IndigenousKnowledge

On returning from filming a #wildfire documentary, #PeterKnapp explains how fascism and #racism are connected to #wildfires. LA is just the latest example.

"Replacing the #IndigenousPeople and the fire-resistant natural forests with flammable buildings, fences, bushes, leaf piles, and other colonist infrastructure has made the area much more prone to catastrophic wildfires. This needs to be recognised and the natural balance achieved by the Native Californians needs to be realised and rapidly scaled up to avoid similar catastrophes."

Peter Knapp, January 21, 2025

"Firstly, let’s summarise the scale of the January 2025 fires in Los Angeles to the time of writing (16th Jan). Over an area roughly three times the size of Manhattan, over 12,000 homes have been reduced to ashes, forcing the evacuation of 150,000 people and leaving entire neighbourhoods in ruins. The fires have claimed 25 lives, with 24 individuals still missing. Economic losses and damages are estimated to reach $250 billion, potentially making this the most expensive wildfire in U.S. history, largely due to its destruction of some of the nation’s most valuable real estate.

"Not just celebrities’ homes were destroyed, of course. The Palisades Bowl trailer park, home to nearly 200 mobile units, was largely engulfed in flames. The diverse Altadena community saw over 14,000 acres burnt, including homes, schools, churches, and businesses. Yet, crowdfunding has supported wealthier neighbourhoods much more. This catastrophe, like so many others yet to come, disproportionately affects the poorest and most vulnerable.

"Throughout June-September 2024, I filmed an independent documentary looking at wildfires, their causes and impact. I interviewed 48 people in 6 different countries about their experiences with wildfires or their expertise in tackling them. This took me into a number of interesting side alleys, including the links with organised crime and political corruption. I looked at mental health, biodiversity loss, community-building, and wildfire resilience. But one theme kept returning again and again: the Far Right and fascism. Modern day fascism capitalises on any crisis and, in the case of wildfires, make them more likely.

"I was — and remain — deep in the editing phase of my film when the LA fires, including the Palisades fire, raged. And so I saw these links playing out again, in real time. Here are some reasons for how the LA fires have become so bad, how they are linked to the loss of Indigenous Knowledge — and fascism.

Fire suppression and controlled burning

"For more than 13,000 years before European #colonisation, most #Indigenous Californians practiced controlled burning for a steady supply of food and medicinal plants while maintaining #ecosystem balance.

"This practice preserved old growth while burning the flammable shrub, grasses, and bushes to stop them building up, thereby reducing the chances of catastrophic fires.

"But the #LandGrabs, genocides, and removal of Indigenous Californians led to a loss of this vital sustainable practice. Soon after Western occupation, more than 37,000 Indigenous Californians died at the early Christian missions, and between 1850–1870 around 80% of their population were wiped out. Racist and #colonial attitudes embodied in the '#IndianProblem' gave Europeans the right to enslave native people and take custody of their children.

"In 1830, the Removal Act aimed to displace #NativeAmericans from their tribal lands, whereby the President could grant land west of the Mississippi River to Native Americans that agreed to give up their homelands.

"In 1850, the US government passed the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians, which outlawed intentional burning in California. In 1851, California’s first governor, Peter Burnett, declared that a 'war of extermination' needed to be waged upon Indigenous peoples. A series of unratified treaties of ‘peace and friendship’ forced them out of the coastal areas, including the LA region.

"In 1910, a string of disastrous wildfires, famously dubbed the '#BigBlowup,' ravaged Idaho and Montana and claimed the lives of over 100 firefighters. These were pivotal in persuading Congress, under the advocacy of forest reserve supporters, to create an agency dedicated primarily to suppressing wildfires.

"As the destruction of the natural beauty of the forests was realised by politicians, a ‘zero burn’ strategy to preserve the forests was created, in part to protect the economy and the natural beauty. The Weeks Act of 1911, aimed at protecting nature in the east of the USA, made the indigenous practices of ‘cultural uses of fire’ illegal."

Read more:
https://medium.com/the-new-climate/fires-fascism-and-the-loss-of-indigenous-knowledge-f8609c630231

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/VX9GF
#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #IndigenousKnowledge #Colonialism #StolenChildren #BoardingSchools #StolenLand #OverDevelopment

One of the world’s biggest cities may be just months away from running out of water

by Laura Paddison, Jack Guy and Fidel Gutiérrez, CNN

February 25, 2024

"Alejandro Gomez has been without proper running water for more than three months. Sometimes it comes on for an hour or two, but only a small trickle, barely enough to fill a couple of buckets. Then nothing for many days.

"Gomez, who lives in #MexicoCity’s #Tlalpan district, doesn’t have a big storage tank so can’t get water truck deliveries — there’s simply nowhere to store it. Instead, he and his family eke out what they can buy and store.

"When they wash themselves, they capture the runoff to flush the toilet. It’s hard, he told CNN. 'We need water, it’s essential for everything.'

"#WaterShortages are not uncommon in this neighborhood, but this time feels different, Gomez said. 'Right now, we are getting this hot weather. It’s even worse, things are more complicated.'

"Mexico City, a sprawling metropolis of nearly 22 million people and one of the world’s biggest cities, is facing a severe #WaterCrisis as a tangle of problems — including geography, chaotic urban #development and leaky #infrastructure — are compounded by the impacts of #ClimateChange.

"Years of abnormally low rainfall, longer dry periods and high temperatures have added stress to a water system already straining to cope with increased demand. Authorities have been forced to introduce significant restrictions on the water pumped from reservoirs.

"'Several neighborhoods have suffered from a lack of water for weeks, and there are still four months left for the rains to start,' said Christian Domínguez Sarmiento, an atmospheric scientist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

"Politicians are downplaying any sense of crisis, but some experts say the situation has now reached such critical levels that Mexico City could be barreling towards 'day zero' in a matter of months — where the taps run dry for huge swaths of the city.

Historic lows

"Densely populated Mexico City stretches out across a high-altitude lake bed, around 7,300 feet above sea level. It was built on clay-rich soil — into which it is now sinking — and is prone to #earthquakes and highly vulnerable to climate change. It’s perhaps one of the last places anyone would choose to build a #megacity today.

"The #Aztecs chose this spot to build their city of #Tenochtitlan in 1325, when it was a series of lakes. They built on an island, expanding the city outwards, constructing networks of canals and bridges to work with the water.

"But when the Spanish arrived in the early 16th century, they tore down much of the city, drained the lakebed, filled in #canals and ripped out #forests. They saw 'water as an enemy to overcome for the city to thrive,' said Jose Alfredo Ramirez, an architect and co-director of Groundlab, a design and policy research organization."

Read more:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/one-world-biggest-cities-may-103023024.html