Global Bush Fires: Who is to Blame?

The world so easily goes into flames these days. Am deeply troubled by the frequencies and magnitude of the wild fires in the developed countries year after year where property worth millions simply get turned to dark soot in the very eyes of the owners. These levels of unpreparedness in predicting wild fires could be tolerated in Uganda where priorities are sometimes subverted or swapped entirely with non-priorities. But in countries like America, Spain, Greece, Australia or Belgium where recent wild fires have caused repeated episodes of destruction to lives and property, I find this trend damning.

America has been to the moon and has sent missions to space repeatedly. They can detect Tsunamis many hours before they happen. They also have the technology to detect asteroids and other cosmic dangers. I therefore find it very disturbing to learn of the yearly occurrences of wild fire disasters in America in particular let alone other developed countries like Spain, Greece and Australia.

Recently the Governor of California was considering a state of emergency as a response to wild fires that were threatening the very existence of the State. Firemen have many times been overwhelmed by bush fires that burn swathes of forest land in total defiance of the acclaimed superior technological and organizational acumen Americans and other big powers of the developed countries are reputed for. In Greece, I had the undesirable spectacle of watching a CNN clip of men and women fleeing their homes to save their dear lives as the wild fires threatened to obliterate their homes. Only two years ago at about the same time, the Greek firemen were seen fighting the same kind of fires just like their American counterparts.

It can be appreciated that climate change is all there is to blame here-but I want to add another target for blame-it is the poor observance of the tenets of strategic planning by leaders of those countries. It can be tolerated if an accident happens once or twice, but if wild fires are happening every year in America, Australia, Greece or Spain, then the word “Accident” loses its meaning and becomes sorely redundant.

It is time America and her fellow big powers considered wild fires as a national problem far more serious than the cold war. The cold War never caused any significant danger beyond the level of fear, yet the amount of money spent in dealing with that perceived threat was in trillions of Dollars. It is now time America and some of the big nations around the world started big spending to protect their citizenry from the threats of wild fires. Let there be a military like budget in the fire prone countries to robustly deal with wild fires. It is time for the world to innovate in the fire preparedness at all levels with strategic planning that covers early warning, training and education.