“We will be known forever by the
tracks we leave.” Dakota Sioux proverb
Firesounds—crackling, sizzling, snapping,
smoldering—
the sounds of another dry, consuming fire season are upon us once
again.
July 2019
was the hottest month on record for the planet. It was so hot in the Catalan
region of Spain that a pile of manure self-ignited and started a blaze that
consumed 10,000 acres.
This
devastation is now global with wildfires spreading from above the Arctic Circle
in Alaska to Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. Acres have burned in the Canary
Islands of Spain, Portugal’s Castelo Branco District, the Chiquitania region
of Bolivia, northern Siberia, and of all places—Western Greenland.
The fire season in California already underway. According to Cal-Fire and the US Forest Service, as of August 18, 2019 over 4,000 fires have been recorded in the state totaling an estimated 51,000+ acres. This devastation includes the Tucker Fire in Modoc County at 14,000 acres and the Caliente Fire in San Diego with over 500 acres.
California
is a perennial tinderbox, having experienced some of the worst wildfires on
Earth.
Are these
wildfires the result of climate change, human-made causes,
lack of government
funding and support………or most likely, all of the above?
Firesounds
She raised her head.
Her nose began to twitch.
Her hackle stood on edge.
Air, gathering in lumps
got caught in her lungs.
A guttural sound, somewhere
between a growl and a yelp
burst from her throat.
Her eyes began to cloud—
stung by a whispering haze.
Danger was near—
she was trying to warn us.
The hue on the horizon
turned from ochre to umber.
The earth beneath her feet was crying.
Firesounds danced through the night—
a howl cut through the trees—
a pulsing tempo surged with the wind—
a cacophony humming in restless harmony.
—Jeff Key, 2019
