The wildfire in Los Angeles, Southern California, United States (US), has been raging since Jan. 7. It has yet to be extinguished and continues to spread due to strong winds.
Local authorities have evacuated more than 180,000 people, and the fire has claimed the lives of at least 28 people, destroyed thousands of homes, and burned tens of thousands of hectares of land.
Recently, another wildfire occurred north of Los Angeles, consuming 8,000 hectares of land and prompting the evacuation of more than 19,000 people.
Professor Priyono Suryanto, a professor at the Faculty of Forestry, Universitas Gadjah Mada, stated that the forest fires in Los Angeles warn the global community about the real impacts of climate change and global warming caused by deforestation.
“The forest fires in California cannot be understood from a single perspective. The factors are not isolated but are an accumulation of complex issues in ultra-modern life,” said Professor Suryanto on Friday (Jan. 24).
He explained that natural infrastructure such as rivers, tributaries, hill performance, and habitat space is often neglected in modern life. Instead, modern infrastructure is built with the disregard of natural infrastructure.
Yet, proper forest management and forestry practices that restore the balance of life are crucial.
“As long as the rate of deforestation remains unchecked, and rehabilitation efforts are not accelerated, we are, in full awareness, awaiting ‘nature’s verdict’ through disasters like this,” he remarked.
He further added that forest fires and other disasters, such as floods and landslides, indicate that the harmony between humans and nature is imbalanced.
“The increasing frequency and variety of natural disasters should serve as a clear alarm for us to return to living in harmony with the universe,” he emphasized.
The Faculty of Forestry lecturer also urged the public, the government, and private sectors to support climate change mitigation efforts to maintain the balance between humans and forests.
“A new global awareness is needed that promotes global humanitarian actions, such as ecological charity. The ecological charity has been largely marginalized and, in extreme cases, completely ignored; when it does exist, it is only on a small scale,” said Professor Suryanto, the Chair of the Indonesian Agroforestry Society (MAFI).
Professor Suryanto explained that ecological charity goes beyond land rehabilitation programs or reforestation efforts. It should be expanded to include architectural designs that ensure the growth and development of natural instruments such as forests, rivers, and other natural habitat spaces.
Author: Tiefany
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Post-editor: Afifudin Baliya
Photos: Bloomberg and Times of India