Speaker 1: We're heading into a warming phase if governance doesn't take
Speaker 1: a niece into the fact that the burning of fossil
Speaker 1: fuels are increasing the surface of the earth and the
Speaker 1: temperature on the surface of the earth, and that's been
Speaker 1: trapped and this envelope that surrounds that surrounds us, that
Speaker 1: is causing a heating up of the earth. The fire
Speaker 1: fire is responding to that heating of the globe, and
Speaker 1: that's really important to be aware of. And if we
Speaker 1: don't halt our activities on the ground and really change that,
Speaker 1: we are going to head into a catastrophic zone.
Speaker 2: Ah fucked.
Speaker 3: Welcome to I'm Fucking the Future. I'm your host, Chris Turney.
Speaker 3: I've been studying the climate for close to thirty years now.
Speaker 3: In most professions, after thirty years, you might say I've
Speaker 3: seen it all. But in the climate crisis, there's always
Speaker 3: something new. The headlines make everything feel pretty scary, and
Speaker 3: that's because in a lot of ways it is pretty scary.
Speaker 3: But being alarmed about the fate of our future isn't enough.
Speaker 3: We've got to get activated and think creatively about tackling
Speaker 3: the climate crisis together. So let's dig in.
Speaker 2: We're fucking the future. Weird are fucking the future.
Speaker 3: If you're listening to this, congrats you lived through the
Speaker 3: hottest year on record, and with the hotter temperatures, we
Speaker 3: also saw increased intensity in wildfires, and for many of
Speaker 3: us it's personal. It doesn't matter if you live in
Speaker 3: the country or a city. Wildfires are becoming a part
Speaker 3: of all our lives. For me, wildfires became a huge
Speaker 3: part of my life. In twenty nineteen and twenty twenty,
Speaker 3: it was summerre in Australia and the whole country seemed
Speaker 3: to be a blaze. As you can see, it's nuke
Speaker 3: it's just gone.
Speaker 1: A state of fier emergency has been declared for the
Speaker 1: first time in Queensland's history.
Speaker 3: Fifty nine million acres were burnt. That's two times the
Speaker 3: size of Pennsylvania. Thirty four people tragically lost their lives.
Speaker 3: Three billion animals were either killed or harmed. In Sydney,
Speaker 3: the sun cast a weird orange glow and the air
Speaker 3: was filled with smoke for months. It fell like a
Speaker 3: movie Blade Runner. You could even feel the grit of
Speaker 3: charcoal and toxic dust between your teeth. It's estimated the
Speaker 3: city air was ten times above Hazard's levels. So last
Speaker 3: year when the massive Canadian wildfires happened, I had a
Speaker 3: pretty clear idea of a horror's millions there were facing
Speaker 3: smoke shut down seats in both Canada and the US.
Speaker 3: Air quality crashed and it had devastating effects on the environment.
Speaker 3: The Canadian wildfires are released four hundred and eighty mega
Speaker 3: tons of carbon in twenty twenty three. That is an
Speaker 3: eye watering amount that few of any of us can imagine,
Speaker 3: which is also to say, we've really got to figure
Speaker 3: out wildfires if we're going to solve the climate crisis.
Speaker 3: That's why today I'm thrilled to be speaking with Glennis Humphrey,
Speaker 3: a virocologist at the University of Cape Town. She studies
Speaker 3: fire history so that we can better understand and prepare
Speaker 3: for fires in the future. The interaction between human history
Speaker 3: and environmental history is at the core of Glenus's research
Speaker 3: and gives us valuable insights into what's coming next. In
Speaker 3: my field, we focus a lot on how humans are
Speaker 3: damaging the natural environment, but there's another side of this.
Speaker 3: Indigenous peoples have been the custodians of our earth for
Speaker 3: thousands of years, and their practices of land management are
Speaker 3: often regenerative rather than destructive. That's what and this is
Speaker 3: research focuses on how and what we can learn from
Speaker 3: historical land practice.
Speaker 1: I had the problem of been lectured by Norman Myers.
Speaker 3: Norman Myers was a British environmentalist who consulted for the
Speaker 3: European Commission, the United Nations, the World Bank, and even
Speaker 3: the White House. Needless to say, he's a pretty big deal.
Speaker 1: He gave us a lecture of a very interesting human
Speaker 1: perspective and ecological perspective. So it's been aware that this
Speaker 1: is a delicate and fine balance, and I think that
Speaker 1: was when I realized that we need to manage these circumstances,
Speaker 1: and I developed an interest in human, social, and ecological circumstances.
Speaker 3: Glynnis looks at all of it in her work and
Speaker 3: she tries to understand how the climate and humans are
Speaker 3: shifting fire patterns across the world. But to understand fire today,
Speaker 3: we've got to go back to basics. First things. First,
Speaker 3: fires can't happen with dry vegetation, and that means areas
Speaker 3: experiencing drought are particularly vulnerable to wildfires.
Speaker 1: So fires is really linked to rainfall, but also to
Speaker 1: the absence of rainfall and to draft periods. So if
Speaker 1: vegetation dries out to a certain extent, it becomes what
Speaker 1: we call in the fireworld or fire science world, is
Speaker 1: fire weather.
Speaker 3: Fire weather is a convergence of several environmental factors high temperatures,
Speaker 3: low humidity, and often high winds.
Speaker 1: And when you get a convergence of these different weather
Speaker 1: conditions and you have an ignition, you'll have the start
Speaker 1: of a fire. So I think those are dynamics which
Speaker 1: are really important to understand.
Speaker 3: When those ingredients are in place, there's a very real
Speaker 3: risk of wildfires, which brings me to the second point.
Speaker 3: There are good fires and bad fires. A lot of
Speaker 3: places have naturally occurring fires that have happened for millennia
Speaker 3: and crucial for a healthy ecosystem and landscape. Those fires
Speaker 3: tend to look like small fire patches where the flame
Speaker 3: is contained to a small area because much of the
Speaker 3: floora nearby is too wet to ignite. But bad fires
Speaker 3: look like the ones we're seeing a lot of lately,
Speaker 3: huge swaves of land destroyed. Unmanageable and truly frightening. Fires
Speaker 3: are also a major contributor to carbon emissions. When a
Speaker 3: landscape is burned the carbon it has been storing is
Speaker 3: suddenly released into the atmosphere and the amounts can be
Speaker 3: truly staggering. For massive wildfires in Canada, last summer emitted
Speaker 3: three times as much carbon as Canada typically pollutes annually.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of carbon dioxide released and that's
Speaker 1: will results in global heating that will heat up the
Speaker 1: earth and actually accelerate. You get those fires cause they
Speaker 1: own fire weather, cause their own fire winds, which generates bigger,
Speaker 1: bigger fires. They've burned for longer. With an increase in
Speaker 1: carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, we really need to be
Speaker 1: taking measures and listening to people on the ground and
Speaker 1: working together with people in order to manage these bigger
Speaker 1: fires that are happening across the world.
Speaker 3: Today. Wildfires are becoming too large, too frequent, and too intense.
Speaker 3: It hasn't always been this way. I mean during the
Speaker 3: Australian wildfires in twenty nineteen and twenty twenty, the Walamie
Speaker 3: Pine was nearly lost to the fires. Walamie Pines are
Speaker 3: the dinosaur trees. They've survived unscathed for ninety million years,
Speaker 3: hidden in canyons just two hundred kilometers from the city
Speaker 3: and rediscovered just a couple of decades ago. Just think
Speaker 3: about that this tree species has been around since the dinosaurs.
Speaker 3: There's only a few of them left on Earth, and
Speaker 3: we almost lost them because of these fires.
Speaker 1: What we're seeing is different from the past. We're seeing
Speaker 1: basically a change in the intensities of fires, the frequencies
Speaker 1: of fire that we haven't actually seen before. And we're
Speaker 1: aware of the fact that we're having increase in heat
Speaker 1: waves in drying our periods.
Speaker 3: Ecologists like Glennis look for fire patterns to determine what
Speaker 3: is normal and what isn't.
Speaker 1: What we understand as fires scientists is we study a
Speaker 1: fire pattern, and that's a repeated pattern of fire in
Speaker 1: a certain place, at a certain scale, in a certain
Speaker 1: vegetation type. So fire differs in different ecosystems all over
Speaker 1: the world, and that's very important to remember when you
Speaker 1: see a change where fires occurring where it didn't occur before,
Speaker 1: or it's occurring at a much bigger scale than it
Speaker 1: did occur before. I think that's what's alerting us that
Speaker 1: something is off. That's a warning to say things are
Speaker 1: changing because it's different from the past.
Speaker 3: Glenna says that one of the greatest inventions is actually
Speaker 3: for Humble satellite.
Speaker 1: What's really been pivotal is the release and the advancement
Speaker 1: of remote sensing data. There's been a change in the
Speaker 1: advance of remote sensing data, which is basically satellite data.
Speaker 1: So satellite data is measuring variables on the surface of
Speaker 1: the Earth, and when it comes to fires, heat signals,
Speaker 1: heat and the possession the geolocation of fires are detected
Speaker 1: by satellites that are moving and circulating around the globe.
Speaker 1: And I think from a fire perspective, these beautiful maps
Speaker 1: that we're emerging that could actually where you could see
Speaker 1: where fires were occurring across the globe. And that was
Speaker 1: about the early two thousands, and I remember it was
Speaker 1: a NASA produced image, and I think you might remember it.
Speaker 1: It's this beautiful map that you can see where fires
Speaker 1: are occurring. And those maps were rarely illuminating to say, wow,
Speaker 1: look at the extent of fire on the surface of
Speaker 1: the Earth.
Speaker 3: That's incredible, isn't it, Because before it was spot observations,
Speaker 3: someone sort of fire here and there, and people put
Speaker 3: up on the map over time. Whereas here you're getting
Speaker 3: that single almost like a single shot of view from
Speaker 3: up above looking down.
Speaker 1: And also you know, satellites are able to measure fire intensity.
Speaker 1: It's one of the fire variables that we need to
Speaker 1: really be aware of because it's related to how hot
Speaker 1: fires or how coolifire it and that is really important
Speaker 1: in understanding how whether fires are damaging or not. Fire
Speaker 1: intensity is really important to be aware of when understanding
Speaker 1: how fires move through our landscapes and in different vegetation
Speaker 1: types and in a point in time.
Speaker 3: And the bad news is that fire intensity is increasing
Speaker 3: in many vulnerable areas around the world.
Speaker 1: We are seeing an intensity of fire increasing. And to
Speaker 1: take an example, the recent fires in Siberia in the
Speaker 1: Russian tundra, and those fires are I think is unusual.
Speaker 1: And the fires that are seen in the boreal regions,
Speaker 1: the Arctic regions, that is something new that scientists are
Speaker 1: still grappling with.
Speaker 3: Let's take a brief pause here and unpack what g
Speaker 3: Linus is saying, because it's massive. What the fuck are
Speaker 3: you talking abou The Artic is heating up at least
Speaker 3: twice as fast as the rest of the world. Fires
Speaker 3: are now able to take hold fare and with far
Speaker 3: greater ferocity than before. And it's not just for humble
Speaker 3: tree catching on fire. The Arctic is covered in peatlands
Speaker 3: or peats, which are a type of wetland and packed
Speaker 3: with dead and decaying plants spanning back thousands of thousands
Speaker 3: of years. It's basically like a massive pool of carbon
Speaker 3: sitting just below the Earth's surface. And in normal times,
Speaker 3: say fifty years ago, most peatlands had a high water
Speaker 3: table and weren't prone to fire. But because of the
Speaker 3: increasing temperature, the water table has lowered, making the peatlands
Speaker 3: dry out, and unlike most forest fires, you don't have
Speaker 3: a huge, intense firestorm. Instead, these fires sit under the surface,
Speaker 3: smoldering away. In fact, one lab experiment found that smoldering
Speaker 3: peat fire could survive at below minus thirty five degrees.
Speaker 3: It's like they're cooking the Earth's surface, and obviously all
Speaker 3: the carbon release from the plants goes into the atmosphere,
Speaker 3: causing even more global heating. The bottom line is the
Speaker 3: fires in Siberia and the Arctic are so much worse
Speaker 3: for the planet's climate because it causes two problems. First,
Speaker 3: you have the carbon released from the fires themselves, but
Speaker 3: the fires also melt the permafrost for frozen ground, releasing
Speaker 3: more carbon and also creating huge amounts of that far
Speaker 3: stronger and nastier greenhouse gas methane, which we talked about
Speaker 3: in the last episode. And that's what the fuck we're
Speaker 3: talking about. What the FuG are you're talking about? Okay,
Speaker 3: back to Glynnis. I mean, that's extraordinary, isn't it, Glinnis?
Speaker 3: Because those are fires in Siberia going up towards the Arctic,
Speaker 3: and we're getting these major landscape fires. They have never
Speaker 3: been seen before on this level. That's right, It's just
Speaker 3: not what we expect to see fires. I think most
Speaker 3: people should not be able to relate to that.
Speaker 1: It was the first time in history that fire is
Speaker 1: recorded so close to the North Pole, and that should
Speaker 1: be an alarm signal that something is wrong.
Speaker 3: That's a massive red flag, isn't it. That really is.
Speaker 1: It's a red flag that the world is heating. There
Speaker 1: is heating going on, and because we are seeing ecological
Speaker 1: changes in places that didn't burn previously at that extent
Speaker 1: and that intensity.
Speaker 3: So we've got fires in places where previously they would
Speaker 3: have been unimaginable. But we also have a growth in
Speaker 3: the size, frequency, and intensity of the wildfires in areas
Speaker 3: where they were once a positive part of the environment.
Speaker 3: This is caused in part by a heating world and
Speaker 3: decreased rainfall in many parts of a globe. But colonization
Speaker 3: has also had a heavy hand to play in this crisis,
Speaker 3: which brings us to the segment we call holy Fuck.
Speaker 3: To understand how colonization and fire policy interact, let's look
Speaker 3: at one single biome. For savannah is the most fire
Speaker 3: prone environment in the world. This biome is characterized by
Speaker 3: seasonal droughts and extensive grasp for when dry is extremely flammable.
Speaker 3: It's not a specific geographic place, but rather the savannah
Speaker 3: exists in several places around the world Brazil, Australia, Central
Speaker 3: and southern Africa, and many of these have been plagued
Speaker 3: by European colonization. But for our purposes, let's just take
Speaker 3: the African savannah, which accounts for almost half of Africa's
Speaker 3: total land area.
Speaker 1: I worked in the central Kalihari with the Quessan and
Speaker 1: Humbakush people, and I spent time tapping into their knowledge
Speaker 1: and understanding why they're used fire. And these people genetically
Speaker 1: are some of the oldest people on Earth.
Speaker 3: For at least four hundred thousand years. Humans in Central
Speaker 3: Africa used fire as a tool for life.
Speaker 1: It's part of their life, it's culturally connected to them,
Speaker 1: it's part of their society. So the burning of vegetation
Speaker 1: and the burning, the use of fire has always been there.
Speaker 3: It wasn't just a way of cooking food. Fire was
Speaker 3: used to clear land, to hunt and later for agricultural purposes,
Speaker 3: replenishing the salt in the process. But when Europeans began
Speaker 3: colonizing and stealing land that belonged to indigenous peoples, they
Speaker 3: brought harmful fire suppression tactics with them. Europeans claimed that
Speaker 3: traditional fire management practices would destroy resources, properties and the environment.
Speaker 3: In reality, the opposite is true.
Speaker 1: With colonization came an idea that fires is bad and
Speaker 1: that we should stop fires, and that's where the friction
Speaker 1: and the conflict started and where people were practicing traditional
Speaker 1: practices and then all of a sudden they had to
Speaker 1: stop doing and were told that fire is bad, and
Speaker 1: that's when things and that happened globally. It happened in Australia,
Speaker 1: it happened in America with the Native Americans, it happened
Speaker 1: in Africa.
Speaker 3: Europeans banned fire as a land management practice, and those
Speaker 3: harmful policies are still in place in many parts of
Speaker 3: a world. The legacy of fire suppression from colonization has
Speaker 3: led to a huge number of wildfires in these areas. Today,
Speaker 3: for Savannah, biom accounts for eighty six percent of the
Speaker 3: world's fires. It's the kind of surprising fact that makes
Speaker 3: you sit back and say, holy fuck. Colonial legacies have
Speaker 3: led us to this moment, and now we're baling towards
Speaker 3: a pretty blique fire prone future.
Speaker 1: It becomes really serious when it impacts people's lives. It's
Speaker 1: impacting on the urban fringe. It's moving into spaces where
Speaker 1: people aren't prepared to respond because there's been changes, for example,
Speaker 1: in the vegetation around certain places is not being managed
Speaker 1: sufficiently to actually manage these catastrophic fires and these wildfires
Speaker 1: that happen.
Speaker 2: We're a fucking the future. We're a fucking the future.
Speaker 3: Glennus has been working with indigenous communities to better understand
Speaker 3: their historical practices. This helps governments make more informed decisions
Speaker 3: about fire policy.
Speaker 1: So in my research, I worked with indigenous traditional people
Speaker 1: living in the Central Kalahari area in Namibia, and I
Speaker 1: asked people how they used fire, to understand how they
Speaker 1: used fire in the past. Why people use fire and
Speaker 1: wife is important for them, so what reasons why they
Speaker 1: used fire.
Speaker 3: These kinds of questions and studies are critical to addressing
Speaker 3: the legacy left behind by colonization.
Speaker 1: If you don't burn and use fire to manage fire,
Speaker 1: we're not going to address these issues. That's really important.
Speaker 1: So we use a term called prescribed fire or early
Speaker 1: dry season burning. When you talk about traditional fire management,
Speaker 1: we really need to realize that fire is something we
Speaker 1: need to use in order to manage life.
Speaker 3: When Glennis says that it's not just a nice SoundBite,
Speaker 3: fire is absolutely necessary to a strong and healthy ecosystem.
Speaker 1: Fire is essential. We can't live with our fire. From
Speaker 1: a management perspective, there's certain plants that only respond to fire. So,
Speaker 1: for example, in the system where I'm sitting right now,
Speaker 1: surrounded by the ferin boss in a bi university hotspot
Speaker 1: in the Western Cape, certain species like for example, the
Speaker 1: protea species need fire to germinate. In other parts of
Speaker 1: the world, the seeds are actually trapped in those pine
Speaker 1: cones and the actually need heat to explode. And there's
Speaker 1: another perspective, we live with fire and there's people in
Speaker 1: really remote areas of Southern Africa and Africa that live
Speaker 1: with fire on a daily basis, and people use fire
Speaker 1: to manage the vegetation around their homes, to manage fire
Speaker 1: to manage plants that they depend on. For example, the
Speaker 1: Quersan in Namibia, they burn certain areas to actually encourage
Speaker 1: the grass of vegetation. It regenerates the grass and it
Speaker 1: results in improved productivity. We've known for millennia that a
Speaker 1: flush of green grass will attract a herd of zebra
Speaker 1: for grazing purposes.
Speaker 3: Glennis's work with local communities led Namibia to make policy
Speaker 3: changes that will help put the country on a more
Speaker 3: positive track.
Speaker 1: For the first time in history, the Namibian government changed
Speaker 1: from a policy of fire suppression but actually recognized indigenous
Speaker 1: knowledge and traditional knowledge and the use of fire. People
Speaker 1: are using fire to manage fire. At the ministry level,
Speaker 1: I was in asking people how they understood fine, why
Speaker 1: they're used fire, and how they were using fire. International
Speaker 1: Park where actually it was a very unique circumstance because
Speaker 1: the indigenous community were allowed to live in the park.
Speaker 3: Usually people are removed, yes, of course, which.
Speaker 1: Is a sensitive issue across the world, people have been
Speaker 1: removed from ecological from protected areas. This was a unique
Speaker 1: circumstances where people were living amongst wildlife and fire, and
Speaker 1: so it was a brilliant from a scientific perspective, what
Speaker 1: a wonderful experiment to actually be able to ask people
Speaker 1: about why, how they were using fire, how they were
Speaker 1: living fire. And I think that was revealing in a
Speaker 1: sense that when I asked the ministry how they were
Speaker 1: using fire, they recognized that the use of fire in
Speaker 1: the season to actually remove the vegetation and the fuel
Speaker 1: load was really helping them manage the latter hot, dry
Speaker 1: season fires that've were damaging to biodiversity. There was a
Speaker 1: consensus between why the ministry, at the government level of
Speaker 1: the park management why they were using fire, as well
Speaker 1: as the community. They were using fire for the same reasons.
Speaker 1: And I think that's really important to realize is that
Speaker 1: the rationale was the same. You just had to bring
Speaker 1: different people's different knowledge forms to come and understand, say
Speaker 1: why using fire and try and understand that. And I
Speaker 1: think that really needs to be elevated because we can
Speaker 1: learn and we have learned, and governance can learn from
Speaker 1: traditional communities how to manage these artbreaks of fire. If
Speaker 1: we don't use fire to manage fire, we're not going
Speaker 1: to stop the infernos and the conflagrations which are occurring
Speaker 1: all over the world. We really need to apply that knowledge.
Speaker 3: But if we want to solve this crisis, Glynnis says,
Speaker 3: what's happening in the media needs to happen at a
Speaker 3: much larger scale.
Speaker 1: There needs to be greater recognition of traditional fire management
Speaker 1: practices in order to address some of our wildfire issues.
Speaker 1: People need to be allowed to burn and local authorities
Speaker 1: need to be allowed to burn in a certain area.
Speaker 1: And that is because fire, as I explained, is really
Speaker 1: essential to ecological functioning in the majority of ecosystems across
Speaker 1: the world. Just that the vegetation type and the fire
Speaker 1: cycle will differ according to the climate and the current
Speaker 1: and the rainfall patterns and the weather patterns, and that
Speaker 1: really needs to be monitored. From a scientific point of view,
Speaker 1: that data is really essential for understanding when to light fires.
Speaker 1: But the sort of the convergence between people and when
Speaker 1: they burn and the fire science, if you bring those
Speaker 1: two together, that's where you can reach consensus and actually
Speaker 1: understand and actually use fire. But an important aspect of
Speaker 1: people need to be allowed to burn. We shouldn't be
Speaker 1: suppressing fire. That is terminology which has caused a lot
Speaker 1: of damage in the past. But to move into a
Speaker 1: new era of addressing the wildfire scenarios, we should not
Speaker 1: be using We should not be talking about fire suppression
Speaker 1: and fire prevention. We should be talking about fire management
Speaker 1: because that is fire prevention. Fire management equates to fire prevention.
Speaker 1: So in order to dress global biodiversity and health impacts,
Speaker 1: and to support and look after our planet and are
Speaker 1: the ecological functioning of it, we need to be thinking
Speaker 1: where we actually living, and communities can create awareness about
Speaker 1: the fire problem and be activists for fire. Fire activist
Speaker 1: degrees awareness that my home is surrounded by alien invasives
Speaker 1: and actually create a group yourself and start removing vegetation
Speaker 1: from around your home to protect yourself from fire. So
Speaker 1: there are things you can do from where you're at.
Speaker 3: And perhaps most importantly, Glenn said, we shouldn't lose hope.
Speaker 3: There's been a lot of progress in the fireworld.
Speaker 1: I've seen huge leaps in changes and the recognition of
Speaker 1: the importance of the social dynamics in ecological and science
Speaker 1: circles and That's what gives me hope is being able
Speaker 1: to bring different disciplines and people from different walks of
Speaker 1: life together. And if we can do that, we can
Speaker 1: actually really move forward and address bigger issues. But it
Speaker 1: requires the social process, which is often leather intensive scientist
Speaker 1: stuff and run away from people, Johnathan, You we know
Speaker 1: planting cologious and nervous of people, and you know not
Speaker 1: all scientists like people. We need to bring people together
Speaker 1: to come to some sort of consensus and actually rarely
Speaker 1: engage in exchange knowledge to actually dress some of these issues.
Speaker 1: And I've seen that in the last twenty years, and
Speaker 1: that's what gives me hope.
Speaker 3: I was so inspired by my conversation with Glynnis. By
Speaker 3: learning from traditional practice in South Africa and elsewhere, we
Speaker 3: can help reduce the risk and severity of wildfires even
Speaker 3: as global heating accelerates. But a lot of what Glynnis
Speaker 3: is talking about will happen in the policies of our
Speaker 3: local and national governments, So you might be wondering, what
Speaker 3: the fuck can I do?
Speaker 2: What the fuck can I do?
Speaker 3: The wildfires in Australia pushed me to join the New
Speaker 3: South Wales Raw Fire Service or RFS for short. This
Speaker 3: is the world's largest fire service and it's run almost
Speaker 3: entirely by volunteers. It's an incredible and diverse group, and
Speaker 3: since joining, I've learned a ton about fires and how
Speaker 3: to prevent them. Many places across the world rely on
Speaker 3: volunteer firefighters, and I can't recommend you joining your local
Speaker 3: group enough. It's an amazing way to serve your community.
Speaker 3: But that's not all. To talk about other ways you
Speaker 3: can help reduce the risks of wildfire. I'm proud to
Speaker 3: welcome back our friend and act t vist Maggie Bed. Maggie,
Speaker 3: what did you take away from the chat with g Linnis?
Speaker 4: There's so much to talk about here, but I want
Speaker 4: to highlight one important takeaway I had from this conversation.
Speaker 4: The power of gardening. Right, okay, Well, specifically, I am
Speaker 4: talking about keeping any green spaces you own clear of
Speaker 4: invasive plant species. So at first this might sound irrelevant
Speaker 4: to wildfires, but actually they're a huge problem when it
Speaker 4: comes to unmanaged fires. They fuel wildfires, accelerate their spread,
Speaker 4: and increase the likelihood of unusually severe wildfires. So walk
Speaker 4: around your house with a plant, identify your app on
Speaker 4: your phone and check to see which species are invasive.
Speaker 3: Ah, that's great, Maggie. And the other thing I dadd
Speaker 3: is we should be regularly cleaning debris on and around
Speaker 3: our homes, especially for gutters. Dried leaves and small branches
Speaker 3: get trapped in there and they're highly flammable.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 4: I love that, Chris. All of this speaks to the
Speaker 4: importance of preparation. We need to actively maintain our homes
Speaker 4: and green spaces to prepare for potential wildfires. And for
Speaker 4: more tips on how to do that, there is a
Speaker 4: great website you can check out called Ready for Wildfire
Speaker 4: dot org.
Speaker 3: And that's what the fuck you can do?
Speaker 2: What fuck can I do? Oh?
Speaker 5: Fuck?
Speaker 3: That's all for this episode. Next time on I'm Fucking
Speaker 3: the Future, we'll be talking with Kochako and Voacom. She's
Speaker 3: a Thai landscape architect who is changing the way we
Speaker 3: build cities.
Speaker 6: We assume that and Cuckle be able to enlarge it
Speaker 6: capacity to our greed.
Speaker 5: Right, we want more people, we want more buildings, we
Speaker 5: want want more economics, we want more tourists, and we
Speaker 5: assume that Fank can handle it.
Speaker 6: Whereas the line itself, every line or every infrastructure is
Speaker 6: have its capacity, and we also destroyed the natural infrastructure
Speaker 6: to reduce its capacity without.
Speaker 3: Knowing until then. I'm Chris Turney signing off from Sydney, Australia.
Speaker 3: Oh by the way, if you like this episode, please subscribe,
Speaker 3: rate and reviewers wherever you get your podcasts. I love
Speaker 3: reading your comments. They really do make my day. Thanks
Speaker 3: for joining me to Unfuck the Future.
Speaker 2: We're Fucking the Future.
Speaker 3: I'm Fucking the Future is produced by Imagine Audio and
Speaker 3: Awfully Nice for iHeart Podcasts and hosted by me Chris Turney.
Speaker 3: The show is written by Meredith Bryan. I'm Fucking the
Speaker 3: Future is produced by Amber von Shassen and Rene Colvert.
Speaker 3: Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Carl and Nathan Chloke are the
Speaker 3: executive producers from Imagine Audio. Jesse Burton and Katie Hodges
Speaker 3: are the executive producers from Awfully Nice. Sound design and
Speaker 3: mixing by Evan Arnette, original music by Lillly Hayden and
Speaker 3: producing services by Peter mcgriggan. Sam Swinnerton wrote our theme
Speaker 3: and all those fun jingles. If you enjoyed this episode,
Speaker 3: be sure to rate and review Unfucking the Future on
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts. Or whether you get your podcasts