Compromise, Instead of Conquer　

The bushfire has been a challenging and nerve-racking environmental issue in Australia. The cause of bushfire is the evolutionary result of the geographical and climate conditions of the Australia continent. It is rather considered as a natural rhythm instead of something purely caused by human activities. It is said that certain native plants in Australia have evolved to rely on bushfires as a way of regeneration. From an ecological perspective, despite the massive loss of human lives and damage to property, the bushfires have become an essential part of the environment history of the continent. Therefore, a thorough understanding of the environmental history in the field of bushfires is critical in finding solutions to it.

Environmental history, as a study of the interaction between human societies and the environment in the past, not only investigates the influences of human activities on the environment but also emphasizes the active role that nature plays with impact on human societies and cultures. “Australian environmental history is not only dominated by the two waves of human arrivals but also by the physical conditions of the continent and the way it interacts with humans” (Bibliography of Australian Environmental History). When examining the environmental issue of bushfires, it is significant to look for the fire history and the other environmental characteristics of Australia. In other words, we cannot only explain it with the reasons for a narrow point of view, such as Australia is the driest continent, and it has extreme high temperatures and limited water storages. It is suggested that people should examine the cause with a broader background of the environmental factors on the continent. The historical perspective can provide us a comprehensive and long-term understanding of the natural phenomenon, which helps to develop a practical solution instead of some ideas entirely being made out of human culture.

The environmental history helps people to understand bushfires in an accurate and matter-of-the-fact way. If we list all the bushfires happened in Australian history, it is evident to see that the causes of such fires cannot be 100% avoidable. In comparing the Black Friday of 1939 and the Black Saturday of 2009, Tom Griffiths points out the disappointing fact is that people are not unaware of the disaster, but people are still not used to prepare for it. “We now have fewer excuses for environmental innocence. We knew this terrible day would come. Why, then, was there such an appalling loss of life” (Tom Griffiths, 24)? “It is a recurrent nightmare. We know this phenomenon, we are aware the specific contours of the event, and we even know how people live and how people die. Even worse is the knowledge that we still have not come to terms with what we have already experienced”(26). Human life is short compared with the long history of nature. The human mind is forgetful compared with the eternal and ruthless nature laws. A lived experience or shared with others, or new reports are not enough to help people to get a correct understanding of the truth and facts of the bushfire. Humans are emotional and tend to understand and make speculation based on one’s own experiences and knowledge, which is constrained by the cultural and social cognitive limits. News reports tend to focus on tragic stories or unfortunate accidents as the attraction of readers, who may hardly be interested in the common but actual scientific findings. If all citizens have acquired the knowledge of environmental history and adapted their thoughts about bushfires to a natural perspective, it could be possible that there could have been a less appalling loss of life.

The study of environmental history helps us to approach bushfires in a specific way because it can present us what possible practical lessons could have worked or failed in the past. With the accumulative information of the bushfires in history, it is feasible to identify the most likely areas of forest fires or grass fires and the particular period of time that this area is susceptible to such disasters. By making a correlating line of the temperature or rainfall records, people may come to a conclusion that for certain forest areas, under certain weather condition and above a certain temperature that the bushfire is going to occur. By studying the plant composition of those areas, people can find the ecological reasons behind the bushfires. For example, “eucalypts are highly adapted to fire.” “Mountain ash dies out unless fire periodically sweeps the forest, for it is principally fire that releases the seed from the tree’s had capsules.” “The magnificent mountain ash is actually a fireweed” (Tom Griffiths, 25). For the most dangerous forest in the most perilous time of the year, people in the region should be warned to enter the area. Because as the fire is like other natural phenomena that are inevitable but to some extent predictable, what humans can do is to minimize the damage and loss caused by it. If people do not have the historical environmental perspective and always be misguided by the news of shocking death stories, the awareness of protecting themselves is hardly useful. As described in Tom’s article about the 2009 file. “The Bureau of Meteorology predicted the conditions superbly. The Victorian Premier issued a general warning. Fire experts knew that people would die that day. Yet the shock was and still is, immense. It is the death toll, not the weather, which makes the event truly unprecedented” (26). The warning is not delivered if the warning receiver is not really alerted even it has been spread. The education is not successful if the students do not learn even when the teacher has been teaching. It is important that the environmental history perspective should be emphasized in news reports as a way to make every citizen understand and agree with it.

The environmental history provides an invaluable lens in investigating the bushfires and analyzing them, however, it does not generate a long term solution. It is nature that makes creatures evolve, but it is human beings who can learn from the past experience and changes the world with wisdom and hardworking. Nature is not human, but it has laws. A person cannot dominate nature, but it is human nature to make life better. Environmental history does not tell us explicitly the ways to a better future unless people use scientific methods to test and see the result. Different adaptation works such as bushfire attack level assessment, bushfire risk management planning, passive protection designs for buildings in bushfire-prone regions are provided by consultants. Bushfire related risks are covered by insurance as a particular type in Australia. Military training is conducted with magnificent planning and preparation to control or minimize the loss or damage. People see the truth of nature, but people do not willingly become the slaves to it. A positive attitude with an open mind to all valuable sources and information is necessary for getting along with nature. As Prime Minister Tony Abbott said, “Look, climate change is real, as I often said, and we should take strong action against it, but these fires are certainly not a function of climate change, they are just a function of life in Australia” (Jonathan Samuels). The spirit and the willingness to try and survive is not what the environmental history can offer in finding solutions to the bushfires.

It is hard to make a clear-cut conclusion whether the human can conquer nature or nature can overwhelm culture. The relationship between human and nature is like the relationship between husband and wife in marriage. Nature creates human beings, and human beings build the world. Where there is human civilization, there is human culture. Like the secret of a successful marriage lies in the compromise between husband and wife, the survival of human and nature lies in the bondage between each other. On one hand, human beings could never conquer nature because they would also be eliminated in the process of the war against nature. On the contrary, how dull the world would be if there are no human beings? In the long history of bushfires in Australia, the arrival of human is not a determining factor although the impacts of European arrival has rapidly changed the land cover and river systems. What has been done is done; what has occurred is passed. Nevertheless, the experiences of the past, the past history of human beings, as well as the biological past of the forest and grassland, all contribute to nowadays environmental reality. To survive and flourish, it is a compromise that human should make towards nature. “We need to abandon the idea of a national fire plan and develop ecologically sensitive, bioregional fire survival strategies” (Tom Griffiths, 18). A compromise shall be made with different adaptation to the different environment.