In an article published September 23 in The Conversation, School of Public Policy Professor John Rennie Short argued that a number of current federal policies, economic practices, and social issues are having a dramatic impact on the growing number of wildfires in the western part of the country.
“More than eight million acres have burned in six of the years since 2000. There are two main reasons behind the growing conflagrations. The first is the legacy of fire suppression polices that snuff out fires as they appear, but leads to the build-up of fuel that is the raw material for larger, more devastating fires,” he wrote. “The second is climate change, which is making the West hotter and drier. The higher temperatures wick away moisture from the trees, making them more combustible. The combination of more combustible material and a hotter, drier climate leads to more fires.”
After researching the costs and responses to the forest fires, Short found that public discussions do not include the social and political contexts of the fires. In the article, he described wildland-urban interface (WUI), where more people are building homes close to forests and wildlands with a greater risk of fires due to economic incentives and federal subsidies.
“The West is getting drier. The risk of fire is increasing. But the WUI continues to expand. The US taxpayer should not be subsidizing and underwriting such risky behavior.”
Read “The West in on fire – and the US taxpayer is subsidizing it,” in The Conversation.
Update (10/5/15) This article also appeared in Newsweek.
Update (10/13/15) John Rennie Short shared his thoughts on this topic for the Academic Minute podcast.
Tags: CAHSS, PublicPolicy
