Wildfire Wednesday Whoopsie! This post originally appeared on the Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition blog on Wednesday, September 7th. The FACNM team apologizes for not getting the information to our member community at that same time. Thank you for your attention and please share widely.
There is misinformation
about wildfire, ecosystem health, fire mitigation, and forest resilience in New Mexico. Misleading narratives about wildfire in our capitol city of Santa Fe and beyond have resulted in significant roadblocks to mitigation and resilience projects that address our wildfire crisis. With climate change exacerbating the consequences of each wildfire year, the gamble of this misinformation could come at high environmental and community costs. Today’s Wildfire Wednesday aims to:
address misinformation about wildfire, and
debunk prominent examples of wildfire misinformation
based on the consensus among scientists as summarized in the recently released Jones et al. (2022) paper and associated table.
Interested in reading more?
The Fireshed Coalition has developed wildfire resources anchored in the best available science for this landscape.
Check out these related materials:
Briefing Paper series.
Greater Santa Fe Fireshed Coalition FAQs.
Information about the 2020 Medio Fire .
Watch a video on the recent Pacheco Canyon Virtual Learning Exchange.
“Wildfire mitigation requires accurate information about drivers of wildfire change, the impacts to society and ecosystems, and actions that alter trends. Misinformation confuses people about the causes, contexts, and impacts of wildfire and substantially hinders society’s ability to proactively adapt to and plan for inevitable future fires.”
Click on any of the photos below to access the PDF versions of this research.
“Misinformation is incorrect or misleading evidence or discourse that counters best available science or expert consensus on a topic. Vulnerability to misinformation is often driven by distrust in media and institutions, and exacerbated by rapid spread over social media…
“Changing our relationship with fire and the risks we face in the 21st century [will require] understanding human behavior as much as… managing ecosystems. We must learn to deal with misinformation about wildfire and develop strategies for limiting its impact on our ability to implement effective wildfire policies.”
