Dubbed “Oak Fire,” California’s first megafire of the season broke out on Friday (July 23) southwest of Yosemite State Park, near the town of Midpines in Mariposa County, central California. no longer escapes, when summer comes, these devastating fires.
“Explosive“, helped by “drought, climate change and out-of-control vegetation make fires more likely to ignite and spread very quickly“, the one “is a very bad omen for the season which begins”, announces the Los Angeles Times. Since Friday, it has burned at least 5,500 hectares of forest, destroyed ten properties, damaged five others and threatened more than 2,500, according to a spokeswoman for the forest department, or Cal Fire.
More than 6,000 people, mostly living in small mountain villages, have already been evacuated, and a state of emergency has been declared by state governor Gavin Newsom to free up more resources. , especially federal ones. More than 2,000 firefighters are currently on the front line, in difficult conditions: “steep terrain, sweltering temperatures and low humidity”, further complicate the fight, details the Los Angeles Times. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
Climate emergency
Mariposa County has seen several large fires in recent years, including the Rim Fire of 2013. And it’s the second fire to hit Yosemite Forest this month, recalls the Washington Post : on July 7, the “Washburn Fire” broke out in the south of the natural park, threatening hundreds of giant sequoias there. Fortunately, the firefighters managed to protect the thousand-year-old trees to contain the fire, which is now under control.
“But it took more than firefighters’ hard work, luck or a gale to protect the majestic trees of the Mariposa Grove“, specifies the public radio NPR. Since the 1970s, foresters have implemented a policy ofintentional and controlled fires in this area, [qui y ont] drastically reduces fuel”, thus preventing the fire from thriving. These “good fires”, which the Native American tribes once practiced, “are essential tools” to the maintenance of forests, according to the ecologists quoted by NPRand it is essential to “accelerate the pace and scale”.
Politicians, and not only in the United States, seem powerless in the face of these increasingly frequent and violent fires. Interviewed by the BBCUS climate envoy John Kerry said the White House was considering announcing a “climate emergency”, adding that Joe Biden was ready to use “all the tools at his disposal” to combat climate change, including executive orders. However, he had to admit that the situation was “far from ideal” insofar as Congress is not “thoroughly” behind the president.
“The few options that remain”
A reference to the position of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat but personally linked to the coal industry, who on July 15 definitively “torn to pieces” Joe Biden’s ambitious program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, says the New York Times. Blockage to which are added the recent judgments of the Supreme Court which “drastically restrict” the very possibility for the government to act on emissions. Joe Biden must therefore “weigh the few options he has left”.
On July 20, the American president announced a few measures, such as increasing the budget of a federal program intended to help communities, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods, to better withstand high heat, storms, fires and floods. that climate change has already begun to cause. But nothing that is likely to “help the United States drastically reduce emissions”, regrets the New York daily in this other article.
The only viable option in the immediate future, therefore, would be for many Democrats to declare “climate emergency” , which would offer leeway to the executive, would make it possible to better regulate certain polluting industries or to free up a lot of money. But Joe Biden is still hesitating, anxious not to further anger Joe Manchin – who left the door open to a lighter version of the environmental law – nor to provoke the Republican Party which “would definitely complain” against such an initiative and “might derail it”. In the meantime, in the opinion of John Kerry himself quoted by the New York Timesit becomes difficult to deny that “the united states is a nation in decline”.