Earthlings 2.0 Podcast

#10: Living with Wildfires with Dustin Mulvaney, Molly Hunter, Tim Barat, and Carrick Detweiler

Oct 4, 2022

58:19

Wildfires in the 21st Century feel more intense, burning more acres, taking more lives, and encroaching closer to where people live. And they are raising big questions about how we can live close to nature when that means the risk of fire.

In this show, we look at what is causing these megafires, whether or not their size and intensity are really a new phenomenon, and how we can learn to adapt and live with wildfires, discovering solutions both indigenous and high-tech.

Living with Wildfire features guests Dustin Mulvaney, Santa Cruz resident, environmental scientist, and amateur forest documentarian, Molly Hunter, Associate Research Professor at the University of Arizona and science advisor to the Joint Fire Science Program, Tim Barat, the co-founder & CEO of GridWare, and Carrick Detweiler, the CEO of Drone Amplified.

Talking points

First-hand accounts of what it was like to live near the 2020 CZU Lighting Complex Fires in California
The history of wildfires in the United States
Factors causing increased & more intense wildfires
The ecology of the forest and how it has evolved to depend on fires
Prescribed burns, intentional fires & other management techniques
New technology to help prevent catastrophic fires and protect the lives of fire crews