Cultural Anthropology Blog


Noor Qureshi 

Mr. Roddy 

IHSS

2 September 2021


Cultural Anthropology Blog 


        The article I chose is called "Firestorm: Critical Approaches to Forest Death and Life." This article talks about what a firestorm is and its impact on human life. A firestorm is a fire that's so big and powerful that it makes its own winds. From reading this, I found out that these firestorms are caused naturally and by humans. There has been a large increase in the number of wildfires and storms in Indonesia, Australia, parts of the U.S, and the Amazon. Why are wildfires occurring so often in some parts of the world? Well part of it has to do with us as a society, and how we are destroying these natural homes by deforestation, technology, and creating an urban life for a place that's not meant to be like that. It's not all our fault though; a lot of times fires are caused naturally. In Australia, many of the fires have been due to lightning, while in California it's because of dry vegetation.       

        Although the article doesn't mention much on how firestorms are related to anthropology, I think it that through anthropology we can learn what it means to live in forests prone to fires. Questions like how people adapt to the environment, and how they utilize resources, are really important to think about. When humans kill these forests (and deforestation occurs) climate change is negatively impacted, as well as the life of the native inhabitants. To add to this, when the large forest fires die out, carbon dioxide is emitted into the air. So, the more we learn, the more we can help and prevent human-caused fires. 

 

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