Jordan Thomas (3)

Jordan Thomas is an anthropologist who "was skeptical of the idea that humans are inherently destructive to our environments," so he had gotten involved in research of indigenous peoples and their use of fire. He also gained personal experience of wildfire by serving on a beginner firefighting crew and then spent a summer with a hotshot crew. The book interweaves Thomas' experiences on the hotshot crew with a history of fire in the environment, the long history of indigenous people's use of show more fire to manage and improve the land they lived in, and the current problems that climate change is causing for how fires behave, as well as the ways the fossil fuel industry deliberately set out to spread misinformation about climate change even though their own scientists were telling them about the consequences as far back as 1958.

I learned a lot here, including the fact that California was a rich country when colonists arrived, largely because of how the native peoples used fire to manage the environment. Spaniards did a lot of damage when they came in, but Americans were responsible for enslaving and actual genocide of the native peoples when they took over. They also passed laws to prevent people from burning in the environment, starting the process that has led to the dangerous environmental conditions and megafires that we have today.

The native peoples knew when and how to burn and did it regularly, which improved the environment for both plants and animals. Initially, I was furious at how European colonists treated the native peoples and stopped them from burning, which was necessary for their survival. But then Thomas pointed out that the upper classes were doing the same thing in Europe. Apparently rural people there also used fire to improve their lot. But laws were passed to prevent their burning, and also to stop hunting on public lands, destroying the ability of the lower classes to make a living off the land and forcing them to move to cities to work in the newly forming industries and become dependent on wage labor. So it's as much a class war as an attack on indigenous peoples.

Thomas also shows how terribly underpaid and under-supported the firefighters are, especially the skilled hotshots who are expected to attack the worst fires. Firefighters are classed as "forestry technicians" and not as firefighters in the US Forest Service. This allows them to be hired as seasonal workers, with a low salary and no benefits. However, at the time the classification was created, fire suppression was a small part of that job. The situation has greatly changed since then, but the classification has not kept up. Thomas shows us how difficult the life of a hotshot is, and how they suffer from many of the same issues that military veterans experience. But the hotshots have even less support.

There is some hope, in that in some places, including California, they are starting to acknowledge the native peoples, and include them in planning for controlled burns and managing the environment. But there are environmentalists who are utterly opposed to preventive burns, largely due to mistrust and experience of the past when the Forest Service allowed harmful logging as part of that process. Many hurdles remain to be overcome.

When It All Burns covers the wide range of issues that impact the current state of wildfires and management of the land. There are lots of notes showing the sources of the information Thomas presents. My only complaint with the book is that I wish it had an index. I highly recommend When It All Burns if you want to know more about the current state of wildfires and the history leading up to this point. It is eye-opening. show less

Reading that I, a newly hired cashier, make more per hour than a hotshot made me physically nauseous.

While the ending did show that there is hope for the future, this book truly puts into perspective just how broken our understanding of fire and how to manage it has been.

Thomas writes with so much empathy for the people he has interacted with, especially those who he may fundamentally disagree with because he always digs deeper to try and find the true source of disconnect.