[How About This Book] Fire Is Needed... Greed Is Not Needed

The Dual Nature of Fire:
Driving Force of Civilization,
but a Threat When Out of Control
Petroleum Industry Growth
and Carbon Emissions
Fuel a Vicious Cycle of Heat and Wildfires
After the Petroleum Era,
Life May Remain on Earth...
But Will Humanity Be Among Them?

Fire is inherently dualistic. It is the driving force that blossomed human civilization, yet it also possesses the destructive power to reduce everything built to ashes in an instant. The recent large-scale wildfires centered in the Yeongnam region lasted for over 10 days, engulfing an area equivalent to 166 times Yeouido (48,239 hectares), and as of the 4th, resulted in 82 casualties. A Canadian nonfiction writer points out in this book that such fires are not mere natural disasters but consequences brought about by human greed.

On the afternoon of March 27, a nighttime wildfire is spreading in the hills of Sicheon-myeon, Sancheong-gun, Gyeongnam. Yonhap News

The ferocity of fire that threatens civilization cannot be fully controlled even in the modern era of advanced science and technology. The Meireki Great Fire of March 1657 in Edo (present-day Tokyo), Japan, burned two-thirds of the city area and claimed 100,000 lives. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed about 20,000 buildings in just over 30 hours, creating over 100,000 displaced people. The Baltimore Great Fire of 1904 also destroyed around 2,500 buildings over two days.

The large wildfire that occurred in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, in May 2016 recorded the largest evacuation of residents from a single event. Within a day, 100,000 people were displaced, and the fire lasted for an astonishing 15 months. The damage amounted to 10 billion dollars (approximately 14.4 trillion won), with about 2,500 homes burned and 2,590 square kilometers of forest lost.

What stands out about the Fort McMurray fire is that the city, formed by the boom of the petroleum industry (producing bitumen used in asphalt and other materials), was scattered by fire. Houses built uniformly at 1.5-meter intervals between 2000 and 2010 acted as catalysts for the spread of flames. The polyvinyl chloride exterior materials acted like "solid gasoline." "Most modern people start their day wrapped in highly flammable petroleum-derived substances from head to toe. (...) The Fort McMurray fire starkly revealed the parallel growth of the petroleum industry and fire patterns over the past 150 years. It was a fierce synergy born from the relentless development of hydrocarbon resources, the greenhouse gases trapping heat increasing in real-time, and rapidly changing weather."

Another common feature of large fires occurring in 21st-century industrial centers is the "firestorm cloud." This massive cloud, 320 km wide and reaching the stratosphere in height, contains enough energy to affect Earth's rotation. At the same time, it acts as a conduit, lifting various pollutants such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, particulates, and carbon into the stratosphere. These particulates then travel worldwide by riding polar jet streams.

The author warns that the expansion of the petroleum industry and excessive carbon emissions pose a severe crisis. According to energy expert Daniel Yergin, 84% of the global economy in 2019 (about 90 trillion dollars) was derived from fossil fuels, and the daily global consumption of crude oil reached 15.8 billion liters. "Vast amounts of petroleum fuel almost all cars, trucks, airplanes, trains, and ships worldwide, and serve as key raw materials for plastics, textiles, and fertilizers. Crude oil touches almost every aspect of our lives and much of our bodies, inside and out."

Excessive carbon emissions accelerate the trapping of heat in the atmosphere, which in turn fosters a vicious cycle that promotes fire outbreaks. The author relays scientific opinions that "large fires can inject massive amounts of carbon into the stratosphere, enough to alter Earth's climate," and points out that "the more heat is trapped in the atmosphere, the more frequent fires become, and the more firestorm clouds appear."

Movements for change driven by a sense of crisis are observed in courts. On May 26, 2021, the District Court of The Hague in the Netherlands ruled in a lawsuit filed by the environmental group Friends of the Earth Netherlands against the oil company Shell, stating that Shell has a "duty of care" to reduce its carbon emissions to 55% of its 2019 levels by 2030. This is the first time in history that a court has imposed such sanctions on a private company, underscoring the gravity of the situation.

Shortly after a fire tornado devastated the entire town of Redding, California, in August 2018, the author found a single sprout rising from the ashes. Life had sprouted again from roots that escaped the flames. He says, "What we must now skillfully manage is not fire, but ourselves. (...) Even after the petroleum era ends, life on Earth will remain. But which species, how many, and where they will survive is uncertain."

Fire Weather | Written by John Vaillant | Gom Publishing | 588 pages | 28,000 KRW