Forest Fires, (Human) Nature and Culture

Forest Fires, (Human) Nature and Culture

This year the Forrest fires in Spain have "chosen" an exceptional area. Galicia. Exceptional, because Galicia in the north-west of Spain, is not by nature a very arid area. Until July of this year, 36,000 hectares are destroyed by fire. This is about fifty thousand soccer fields. Galicia that has recovered another catastrophe a few years ago (caused by the Prestige Oil Tanker) is now attacked again, but this time the attack comes from within (society).

The human nature takes the lead in the causing this tragedy. Pyromania is not even the number one cause, but apparently negligence is. Negligence in the sense of barbeques that are used (but forbidden) in forest areas. Meadows that are burned in order to reuse the land for agricultural purposes, in which many cases the fires are uncontrollable (mostly because of strong winds). And then there is the litter of glass than many times causes the start of a Forrest fire; splinters of glass that are transformed as a magnifier glasses.
It goes without saying that both cases -- pyromania and negligence -- need to be punished by law and order.

Pyromania is another cause but that is uncontrollable as being a byproduct of society. Pyromania is a psychopathic disease. Fire has always fascinated mankind and pyromania is something you can not easily control. To manage and control Pyromania you need to manage exceptions. You need to enter into the sick mind of the pyromaniac. Understand psychology. Understand the deviations of society.

Negligence on the other hand, is a primary product of society. It is part of culture. You do not have to enter the psychological area to control negligence. Education and instruction is the only means to control the overall level of negligence of a country. Parents have to teach their children and at school teachers need to explain the human relation with nature, that we need to take care of nature.
But how do we know whether we are reaping the fruits of this education?

This is what culture is all about. The cultural "level" of a society is visible in the way we treat each other but also in the way we treat nature.

An indicator of a cultural level is (the level of) recycling. We started to recycle our garbage not only because of economical incentives, but most of all because moral concern with the environment. Even if the economic equation doesn’t break even on itself from recycling it will when you include the moral and cultural influence. Understanding that we are responsible for our own garbage.
Recycling is about separating glass, batteries, paper, plastic, metal and even organic leftovers from other garbage. And it is not even our own garbage... just think about the people that own a dog...

Changing a culture maybe difficult, but in the end it is the individual that is part of it. You and me who are influencing the average level of culture. If we talk about negligence, the first thing we should do is knock at our own door and check whether we have done all we could have done. Do we recycle our own stuff in the right way?

© 2006 Hans Bool

Hans Bool is the founder of [http://www.astorwhite.com/]Astor White a traditional management consulting company that offers online management tools. Have a look at some of our [http://www.astorwhite.com/en/service_online_statistics.php]free management tools