Jumpline magazine OCT 2022-pages - Flipbook - Page 31
John O’Brien
Executive Board
Firefighters - Natural Environmentalists
Firefighters − ‘natural environmentalists’
− need more tools to fight results of climate
change
Reprinted from the Miami Herald (August 26, 2022)
Securing a safe and prosperous future for communities across
America depends on expanding sustainability measures. Climate provisions in President Biden’s newly signed Inflation
Reduction Act signal the most audacious investment in environmental sustainability ever taken, a course correction toward curbing future projections of climate change.
As Americans wait for the full integration of those legislative
initiatives, communities are left to contend with the current effects of “climate changed.”
I am not a climate scientist. I am a firefighter and paramedic,
viewing this issue from a perspective rooted in public safety. Our warming climate is accelerating unsafe conditions
throughout communities.
Across the pond, a sweltering summer heat wave has cooked
its way through Europe. The mid-July scorcher saw firefighters from the London Fire Brigade experiencing their busiest
day since World War II. Research published this month in the
journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences forecasts similarly
brutal heat waves as regular occurrences. Increasing frequencies and intensities of extreme heat events are expected to
bring greater risk of heat-related illnesses, increasing hospitalizations and deaths.
Our changed climate also carries a full spectrum of water-related events. July saw historic flash flooding ripping through
eastern Kentucky, extinguishing at least thirty-seven lives.
Flash flooding in Las Vegas deluged casinos. In Miami, torrential rains at the open of hurricane season submerged Brickell.
Meanwhile, a historic southwestern drought is ravaging an
already-parched landscape. From California’s snow-barren
Sierra Nevada mountains, usually relied upon to replenish
one-third of the state’s freshwater supply, to the shrinking Colorado River, the main artery sustaining western development,
to Lake Mead, the receding reservoir at 27% of capacity on
the Arizona-Nevada border, aridification threatens to reshape
America’s West.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the Colorado
River Basin will undergo significant water-usage cuts, threatening agricultural livelihoods, putting pressure on the most
fundamental resource for the Basin’s 40 million residents. Wa-
ter is essential in supporting life and important to firefighters.
Undoubtedly, prioritizing water usage among competing interests requires tough decisions. Sustaining life and providing for
life safety must be non-negotiable.
Megadroughts also make for ideal wildfire conditions. Consider the increased occurrences and intensities of wildfires
across America. In 2005, 245 structures were lost in wildfires. Thirteen years later, in 2018, structure loss increased by
10,000%. That is according to National Park Service Division
of Fire and Aviation Management and the National Interagency Fire Center. Whole communities become fresh fuel. In attempts to downplay the causal effects of our changed climate,
critics cite forest overgrowth as the culprit.
The most extensive vegetation in California, however, is not
forest, it is chaparral (shrubs adapted to dry summers and wet
winters). The increased occurrences and intensities of wildfires are a result of our changed climate. Increases in wind
velocity removes moisture from vegetation. Any dried-out
vegetation meeting an ignition source will undergo a rapid,
wind-accelerated spread, without respect to territorial, political, or economic boundaries.
The present sounds bleak, resembling an apocalyptic blockbuster. As such political satires go, Adam McKay’s 2021 film
“Don’t Look Up” is otherworldly. Denial in the face of empirical
truth, “Don’t Look Up” should leave viewers hunched over, the
recipients of a meteoric punch to the metaphoric gut.
Policymakers must dedicate resources not only to climate initiatives, but to public safety as well. Demand that firefighters
receive training in urban-wildland interface firefighting. Support increasing federal funding for Urban Search and Rescue
personnel, specially trained to conduct swift water rescues
during flash flooding.
Finally, we must all hold elected officials accountable and
force them all to “look up.” Navigating our changed climate
demands dedicating resources to public safety.
Firefighters are natural environmentalists. We protect people,
property, and the environment. Call on your local elected officials to staff fire rescue units, improving safety for both residents and firefighters.
No one wants a public-safety landscape presenting more fires
than there are firefighters to fight them.
John O’Brien, MPA, is president of the South Florida Council
of Firefighters, on Local 1403’s Executive Board, and co-chair
of Miami Climate Alliance’s Legislative Committee
October 2022 | JUMPLINE Magazine
31
