Age of Fire

“Hawaiians know to prepare well in advance for hurricanes but not for simultaneous wildfires,” the state’s lieutenant governor, Sylvia Luke, said a day after multiple fires swept across the island of Maui. The fires left thousands homeless and killed at least 111 people in the historic town of Lāhainā. Hundreds are still missing as I write this, and officials expect the death toll to rise. The disaster has earned the grim distinction as the deadliest wildfire in the United States in more than a century, surpassing California’s 2018 Camp Fire, which killed 85 people.
 
That wildfires this destructive can occur on a tropical island chain known for its lush green hills, its rainforests, has taken most of us, including many islanders, by surprise. It shouldn’t have.
 
Hawai‘i, I’m learning, is not only no stranger to wildfire, but has also been witnessing more frequent and intense grass and shrubland fires. According to the nonprofit Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, over the past century the state’s average area burned per year has increased a whopping 400 percent. This  dramatic increase of fire in an ecosystem that’s not adapted to burning is a result of multiple factors: vast swaths of untended former sugarcane and pineapple plantations that have been overrun with nonnative, fire-prone grasses; declining rainfall; more frequent droughts.
 
Wildfire specialists have warned about Hawai‘i’s growing vulnerability for years. Maui County had known that Lāhainā was at high fire risk since at least 2018. As the Honolulu Civil Beat reports, the county’s 2020 hazard mitigation plan says that West Maui had a 90 percent chance of annual wildfires. The fires broke out during a National Weather Service warning of “red flag” conditions. Yet, neither Hawaiian officials nor the public were ready for what came down the line.
 
The tragedy unfolding in Maui is sadly similar to how weather-related disasters are playing out across our warming plant. As journalist John Valliant points out, it’s not just that our cities and towns are built for a different era, it’s our mindset. We can’t wrap our minds around the fact that things are not as before, that our world has been radically altered by capitalism and our appetite for fossil fuels.
 
These are trying times. And we must act. Indeed, many are, including youth climate activists across the United States who are suing state and federal governments for violating their environmental rights. And the good news is, they are winning. As Managing Editor Zoe Loftus-Farren writes in our Autumn print issue, the recent landmark court ruling in favor of young activists who sued Montana for contributing to the climate crisis could be a game changer in the fight for climate action. (The decision was announced on Monday, just days before we sent the issue of to the printer. We decided to publish the article on our website right away.)
 
The Pyrocene, the age of fire, is upon us. This is clear. But we can learn to live within it. And to keep working for a better world.

Maureen Nandini Mitra
Editor, Earth Island Journal

PS: This is a version of my Letter from the Editor published in our upcoming Autumn 2023 print issue. Get a quick breakdown of articles in the issue below.

Photo by Eric Tessmer

• A feature that looks at the roots and workings of the illegal collection and trade of succulents, especially cacti, which are phenomenally popular worldwide among plant enthusiasts, and seeks to understand why ardent lovers of these plants engage in their illicit trade.
• Suriname, one of South America's most obscure countries, has become a new hub for transnational criminal networks trafficking jaguar parts and “glue” to Asia. In keeping with the theme of our all-too human desire to possess, this on-the-ground feature highlights the threats jaguars face in Suriname and elsewhere.
• A look at anti-trans and anti-climate policies in Florida, as Governor Ron DeSantis prepares to run for president. The feature, which delves into how power, authority, colonization, purity and supremacy all interact with people and the natural world, shows how the two positions are linked.
•  A narrative feature that explores what freedom means for the hundreds of feral cattle who roam Chirikof, one of many remote, uninhabited islands within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Depending on whom you ask, the cattle are everything from unwelcome invasive megafauna to rightful heirs of a place they’ve inhabited since the late 1800s.
• A timely article about Montana youth’s legal victory against their government over climate change, and how it shows that making access to a clean environment a fundamental, constitutionally guaranteed right could be a game changer in the fight for climate action.

Plus:

• A conversation with scientist and climate communications expert Susanne Moser that touches upon the importance of tending to ourselves during crisis and the need for meaningful community engagement. 
• An essay by Kahea Pacheco, a climate and Indigenous rights advocate and co-director of Earth Island's Women's Earth Alliance, about how holding a Seven Generations perspective is both a challenge and a gift.

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