Tuesday, July 3, 2012

America's Dissociation and Denial: Wildfires



Where to Begin? I desperately do not care whom I offend. Later I may regret this, but I am going to try with all the depth a white girl from Orem, UT can muster and try. 

While the billows of smoke rise higher and each day more fires begin. Man made fires, I grow angrier(this is normal, for me). Sure lighting causes natural wildfires, and fires are a healthy part of every ecosystem... However these fires are not natural.

Don't be confused by publications stating animals have heightened senses and can escape wildfires easily. This is just simply not the case. In a year as dry as this with much debris to burn, fires erupt quickly and without much notice. Animals that can escape do, but often rattle snakes, nesting baby birds, and many, many other animals can not escape the flames, and certainly not the smoke. Right now nesting bald eagles are dying of suffocation, and being burned alive. 

It will be no surprise to me some individuals will be found dead in this recent Alpine fire at the bottom of American Fork Canyon. In a very relieving, sick way I am happy a human life will be taken. This is in fact the ONLY  way in which to get the attention of the masses. 
Surely it is not enough to watch forests, and habitats burn. 

I regret to inform anyone I am an American. I do not desire to celebrate the 4th of July. I am not proud of what the United States has become and what it stands for. The question of Environment has not even been placed on the table in this election, because it is of no consequence to the economy. Job growth is.... But funny how directly related natural resources are to job growth.

Funny this relationship is never so bluntly connected...

Our environment is what gives us life. Is is not? So therefore our use of the environment is directly related to our economy. Our very way of life! Why then are we not talking about protecting our economy!? 
Why has there not yet been a statewide ban on fireworks this year?

When do you turn off your Televisions? 
Stop watching the realty racket in your ears, the KSL noise in your head and the empty spaces in between to stop yourself from lighting that firework. The firework you know may begin a fire, because you know the areas around your homes well enough to make the educated decision not to start a wildfire. 
For your safety , the safety of a future economy, and for the future of your babies, babies.

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