LIP Recap: California Wildfires
Fall 2020 — Virtual Local Impact Project
History of EthiCAL’s Local Impact Project
Community Service is important to EthiCAL Apparel. Local Impact Projects were created as a way for members to get involved in the community and actively make a difference. They first began as a team projects where members from all teams (Sales, Marketing, Design, etc) were divided into groups and took the lead in developing their own project. This consisted of creating infographics for local organizations, campaigns for how to shop for clothes second-hand, or volunteering at the local food bank.
Last year, they evolved into volunteering events that the Social Good team would plan and members could sign up to participate in all the ones they were interested in. Putting Social Good Associates in charge meant more dedicated time to find more meaningful opportunities. This resulted in both more events as well as more engaging ones. Last semester, some events included volunteering at UC Berkeley’s Society of Women Engineer’s Science Day for Elementary School Students, the Oakland Zoo, the San Francisco Golden Gate Park, and more. Unfortunately, we did not get volunteer at these events due to Covid-19.
Now that students are unable to meet in person, we hosted a virtual LIP for all EthiCAL Apparel Members at our General Meeting this past week. Below is a recap of what we discussed.
Subject: California Wildfires
This semester, we wanted to tackle an important issue facing many communities in California: wildfires.
We also want to acknowledge the erasure of Indigenous People in land management and stewardship. Below are some informative points from NPR’s article, “To Manage Wildfire, California Looks To What Tribes Have Known All Along.”
“When Western settlers forcibly removed tribes from their land and banned religious ceremonies, cultural burning largely disappeared. Instead, state and federal authorities focused on swiftly extinguishing wildfires.”
“Without regular burns, the landscape grew thick with vegetation that dries out every summer, creating kindling for the fires that have recently destroyed CA communities. Climate change and warming temperatures make those landscapes even more fire-prone.”
‘“I think it’s really important that we don’t think about traditional burning as: what information can we learn from native people and then exclude people and move on with non-natives managing the land,” Middleton Manning says. “But that native people are at the forefront and leading.”’
It is really important that we recognize and honor traditional practices and the history of the land that we are on. A helpful resource document for learning more is linked at the end of this article.
Wildfires
California’s wildfires have gotten significantly worse in recent years — the annual area burned by wildfires has increased by 500% since the 1970s. The Camp Fire in 2018 was one of the worst wildfires in CA history, causing at least 85 fatalities, destroying entire towns, and causing billions in property damage. In 2020, over 3.2 million acres of land have been burned. Fires threaten our safety and cause power outages, poor air quality, and property damage, disproportionately hurting the uninsured.
What factors contributes to large fires?
- Climate change is one key aspect
- People: The mismanagement of PG&E, CA’s main energy provider; Gender Reveal Parties
- Lack of fire suppression and controlled burns
- Summer heat (June-September): year round fires with the exception of May
- Santa Ana Winds (October-April): accelerate the spread of embers
Fire in Paradise
Fire in Paradise is a 40 minutes documentary on Netflix that highlights the devastating events and impacts of the 2018 Camp Fire.
- 85 people were killed, more still missing
- Almost 14,000 homes were destroyed & 30,000 people lost houses
- Started by PG&E lines, and spread at a peak rate of 80 football fields a minute
- 5,000+ firefighters called to respond
- $8.4 billion in insured losses
- Cause of the 2018 UC Berkeley class cancellations
There are two specific scenes that we watched. One focused on the damage and extent of the fires in California, with the emphasis that these fires are becoming “normalized.” Most importantly, houses are continually rebuilt in these locations due to California’s lack of land space for real estate. The second scene showed more imagery of being in the actual fires. Roads were clogged with traffic and many people were stuck the fires crossed the freeways, including a school bus full of children. Both scenes were eye-opening, as they revealed what it’s like to be in a fire and the mental and emotional toll of all those involved.
As a group, we discussed:
- What was your reaction to the videos?
- Even if we are not directly impacted by these fires, what role do we play?
- Why is it important that we stay informed about these events?
- What can we learn about institutionalized systems that are wrong?
Impact on Firefighters
Mental and Emotional Implications:
- Repeated Emotional Trauma (RET): the accumulative effects on mental health from repeated exposure to death, injury, and victims of unfortunate events
- Compared to regular citizens, firefighters on average face higher rates of depression and various forms of PTSD, including “secondary trauma” and “compassion fatigue” from RET.
Physical Implications:
- On average, higher rates of alcohol consumption.
- Higher rates of work-related illness such as cardiac and respiratory diseases. These risks have been compounded by COVID-19.
Activity: Letter Writing
Educating ourselves and others is one key aspect to contributing to our community, but in our Local Impact Projects, we also want to ensure that members do something tangible to contribute to the community as well. We dedicated 15 minutes to handwrite letters to firefighters to thank them. Below is a sample of what you can write if you would like to do this activity.
Our Impact
EthiCAL Members learned about the erasure of indigenous people and practices of controlled burns in land management, the mental toll on firefighters and first responders, the impact and gravity of the fires on people’s lives, and the role of humans and climate change in the cycle of wildfires.
Together we wrote over 31 letters, which will be sent to the Calistoga City Fire Department, Santa Rosa Fire Station, Napa Fire Department, and Sonoma County Fire District.
It can be overwhelming sometimes to keep up with everything going on in the world, but we appreciated the time we spent together to learn more about something so important. Many members felt that even if the impact was small, writing to firefighters and showing appreciation is an opportunity to make a contribution.
“We should thank people more often”
Learn More
- Fire in Paradise: 40 minute documentary on Netflix
- Daily Podcast: “Self-perpetuating cycle of wildfires”
- NPR Article: “To Manage Wildfire, CA Looks To What Tribes Have Known All Along”
- ASUC Eco Office: Indigenous Peoples Day Activity Doc
Indigenous Peoples Day was this past Monday, October 12. Indigenous People began protesting the celebration of Columbus day in the 1980’s, and the first Indigenous Peoples Day was actually celebrated in 1992 in Berkeley. The link above is a concise list of resources to get educated, take action, and reflect. We challenge and encourage everyone to do some research and learn about the land that you are on.
Other ways to help the community If you enjoyed letter writing:
- Write to National Park Rangers: http://npmaps.com/thank-a-ranger/#California (this website also has information for all 50 states)
- Write to senior citizens who are isolated
Author: Serena Lowe + Fall 2020 Social Good Team: Mary Ford, Natalie Chu, Smera Patil, Vivian Kuang| Editor: Serena Lowe | Team: Social Good
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