A podcast challenges us to reassess our relationships with fires

Fire -joined
Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Available wherever you get your podcast -et

For hundreds of millions of years, wild fires were directed only by weather, vegetation and terrain. But in the last century in the United States, people have also sought to suppress those useful fires that would otherwise cleanse the dead vegetation, which can promote wild fires and stimulate new growth. Now, catastrophic megafires explode every year, and in some places, climate change has extended the fire season. It is clear that something should give – our society must change its relationship with fire.

This dilemma dims at the heart of Fire -joined – the fourth season of the Podcast series The laws of the notionProduced by the Museum of Nature and Science of Denver Institute for Science and Politics. A listening experience of clamps and educationals, Fire -joined The interruptions of the stories of those who lived through the fires of Cameron Peak of 2020 and East Troubles – two of the largest flames in the history of Colorado – with contextual themes of history and science.

Episodedo Episode explores an aspect of fires, from the impact on water quality to the challenges of reconstruction in the consequences. Emotional memories of residents, ecologists of fire, firefighters and others offer difficult truths to uncontrollable. Living in the mountains has its risks, says David Wolf, chief of the City Battalion of the Golden Fire Department. “I can’t guarantee your home will be sure if you build here.”

Listeners are challenged to weigh their dreams and values ​​against the accompanying risks presented by the fire. Common desires, such as keeping a home or living a lifestyle concentrated in nature, for example, can inadvertently attract people in areas prone to fire. “When we choose to throw our roots, a home, a life, is influenced by our values ​​and needs,” says host Kristan Uhlenbrock, who withdrew to Kolorado from her enthusiasm for the outside. “However, how often when we choose to live somewhere, do we choose danger out of our control, like fire?”

The series could have included more indigenous voices. By living with fires and using fire to manage land for millennia, indigenous people have invaluable knowledge.

However Fire -joined It is a fully reported and thought -out primer in relations filled with the United States fire with fire. As wild fires change, so should we.