The Texas Forest Service Lone Star State Type 2 Incident Management Team (Hannemann)
is in Georgia helping manage the huge forest fires burning there.
What's this got to do with worldchanging?
Last year and the year before, it was Texas burning down, to the size of Rhode Island. This year, it's large chunks of south Georgia and north Florida; more than 300,000 acres so far. There's been a four-fold increase in the average number of large wildfires in the western U.S.since 1970, and research indicates the cause is global warming.
Are the Georgia and Florida fires due to global warming? Nobody knows, although Georgia and Florida have had drought this year and last. Wildfires are natural, and the Okefenokee periodically burns; when it's wet peat builds up, and when it's dry, the peat burns. But this fire has burned apparently twice as many acres as the last one, in 2002, has closed down two Interstates (I-10 and I-75), has burned some buildings, evacuated some towns, and if it gets across I-10, nothing keeps it out of Lake City, Florida. Something is different this time.
The worldchanging part could be the cooperation among firefighting units from many organizations, and in this case different states.
Incident management staff of the Georgia Forestry Commission reported that they are using the “Texas model” for managing their fire season.Perhaps shared adversity is promoting shared organizational methods? Now if it will also promote shared prevention methods.
