Episode Details

Wildfires and climate change: a brief overview 

North America is no stranger to wildfires. As of August 15, 2024, 29,917 fires this year have burned more than 5.2 million acres, according to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. While this year’s number of wildfires is below the annual average of 35,691, the yearly acres burned is above the average of 3.8 million acres of the past 10 years.

While wildfires are a naturally occurring phenomenon, their frequency is heavily influenced by climate change, especially on the west coast of the United States. Wildfire risk increases depending on a number of factors, including temperature, soil moisture, and the presence of trees, shrubs, and other fuel. Additionally, climate change dries out organic matter or “fuel” in forests, resulting in a doubling of the number of large fires between 1984 and 2015 in the western United States. As climate change creates warmer and drier weather conditions, wildfires will likely become more frequent; studies show that an average annual warming of one degree celsius would increase the median burned area per year by as much as 600 percent in some types of forests. 

Ultimately, as temperatures warm globally and drier conditions ravage the country, these fires will spread farther and become harder and harder to extinguish. 

“Good” fire: an ancestral solution to our wildfire problem  

As the planet warms, many have turned to ancient methods to mitigate the effects of climate change. Notably, Dr. Adams borrows the concept of “good” fires from Native American cultural fires practices, where low intensity fires are lit to heal the surrounding ecosystem. In order to positively change the public’s relationship with fire, fire agencies in California and Native American tribes have started using this term. Generally, “good” or cultural fires not only restore degraded soils and decrease vegetation or fuel overgrowth, but also deepen the spiritual ties people have to the land they inhabit. Specifically, good fire increases organic matter, keeps soil surfaces vegetated through the regrowth of plants, and encourages biodiversity. 

In California, many ecosystems rely on fire for its regenerative powers. Dr. Adams notes that fire connects to water, soil health, and the health of animals and surrounding areas. It can also mitigate invasive species growth and eliminate harmful pests that are killing a lot of trees, making them more susceptible to catching fire and starting larger forest fires. As a result, fire promotes many benefits for ecosystem health.

Dr. Adams writes that as a member of the N’dee San Carlos Apache Tribe, she maintains a sacred attachment to the land, and believes that humans and the Earth are relatives. Subsequently, as siblings, humans and the land must help each other survive. Following these teachings around our relationship to more-than-human sibling and reciprocity, “good” fire participants can achieve “futurity” (intergenerational exchanges) that will safeguard future protection of the environment and human communities. Listening to these Native American Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) could lead the way to developing a more sustainable relationship to the planet and, in doing so, mitigate the effects of climate change.

Mother Earth: how climate matriarchy can save the planet 

The concept of “good” fire stems from Indigenous Matriarchal Ecology. Many Native American tribes are matriarchal, such as the Cherokee and the Navajo. Applying traditionally “matriarchal” values such as care, tenderness, and love to environmental conservation could be an effective climate change solution. Inclusivity and the centering of Indigenous women’s knowledge can also allow opportunities to enhance plant and soil health, remediation, and rematriation of the quality of our plant and soilscapes to provide a prosperous support structure that enables ecosystems to thrive.

By practicing Indige