Ethics in a Wildfire

BY BARCODE 2X

The wildfire season in Southern California continues. Thousands are fleeing their homes, hospitals are evacuated, highways are closed, and millions are threatened. The cause of the massive blaze in the San Fernando Valley is yet to be determined. Firefighters have kept much of the blaze contained, but with burning material still out there, and with hot Santa Ana Winds kicking up, the threat is still imminent.

So what do you take with you when you leave? Besides your pets. During last year's fire season, I heard a story of a man driving back into the flames to rescue his computer. It had his novel inside. His life's work. He was able to save it. What do you take, and what do you leave behind?

 Our podcast on disaster preparedness earlier this year was shocking; there is a priority list of who is meant to be saved first. Though the authorities do not like to talk about the list, and about fairness, nonetheless, it is clear from the discussion that there is a pecking order in a disaster situation. We are essentially left to fend for ourselves.

Our hospitals, and our public facilities will be needed if there is a housing shortage or a need to open up makeshift clinics. The schools and city buildings, or other large spaces are valuable in epidemics and disasters. But if there is a priority list for whom to save, is there also a priority list for what to save as well? Do we save our libraries, museums and cultural institutions? Are they vulnerable to looting? Putting this event in context with our ethical look at archaeology, what is truly valuable in a disaster? Are there ways of protecting our valuables and antiquities? Are there structures in place to keep our sense of history?

Our nation is young, relatively speaking. Aside from our dense Native American history, we have our colonial history, stretching back for just a few centuries. There is no real discussion of America B.C. Our oral histories are strong, our resources for geneology are widely available to the public, so how hard are we really going to work to preserve our past? Is it preserved well enough in our public consciousness? On one side of my family, I am a first-generation Polish/Austrian Jew. Much of my family history is hard to trace. When you come to the Holocaust years, you hit a wall. But on my mother's side, I can look at a family tree and trace it back to the Mayflower. To the Pilgrims! Our history here is easier to touch, easier to grasp. Our antiquities are not as rich, not as rare, not as valuable in world history. We have no pyramids in the United States. So what do we fight to save? And what will we leave behind?

I wonder. I wanted to ask our archaeologists Elizabeth Bridges and Katharyn Hanson what they think will be the treasures of our society? What will be the significant artifacts we leave for future civilizations? What are the important tangible items that will tell our story? And what have we done to help protect these items?

Our department stores will tell stories of how we lived, what we consumed. What we were sold on. WALL-E is this year's most important film, and its robot protagonist is something of an archaeologist, digging through trash to collect magical items of our past. When he shows off his treasures to his more advanced robotic love interest, she is at first more apt to destroy what is left on Earth than preserve it.

An interview with Jane Goodall on yesterday's edition of Talk of the Nation: Science Friday revealed an important concept in our evolution. She remarked that it is impossible to compare our intelligence with our primate ancestors. We have an intellect, and cortexes in our brain that they do not. But their type of intelligence is perhaps more valuable. For what can be said of our species when it so easily destroys its own world? In natural history, humans are just a blip on the evolutionary timeline. If our world's natural history was just one year, then we are in the last minute before New Year's Eve. But our impact on the planet has been the most drastic. We have changed our climate. In the years following the Industrial Revolution, we have done serious damage. And if we use the same natural history timeline, the past century is a blink of an eye. Our impact has been deep. We have scarred and dredged the Earth.

A spark from a household appliance can start a California wildfire. A tiny incident can spread very quickly. The population density in the Los Angeles area, combined with the Santa Ana winds, or "Devil's Breath", global warming, and careless behaviors all line up to produce dangerous city-wide blazing infernos. Citizens may leave California forever. There may be a massive Eastern migration one day. The area may be considered too dangerous to live in. And if a state like Michigan can promote itself as a safe place to live, with ample resources, then we may see a change in our local economy. And parts of LA may be left behind forever. And tomorrow when we wake, what will we say of today? Will we say we were wise?

If we are forced to abandon dangerous coastal cities, what significant objects and structures will we unearth one day? Will we see where we went wrong? And when we look around now, what can we change to make our world safer? Not "greener", not more "sustainable", but safer?