AN ACCUMULATION OF CATASTROPHE: A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WILDFIRE IN THE WESTERN UNITED STATES

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dc.contributor.advisorFoster, John
dc.contributor.authorDockstader, Sue
dc.date.accessioned2024-03-25T17:41:57Z
dc.date.available2024-03-25T17:41:57Z
dc.date.issued2024-03-25
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation is an environmental sociological study of wildland fire in what is now the western United States. It examines wildfire management from roughly the 1900s to the present time employing a Marxist historical materialist analysis. The title of this work reflects the accumulated social and environmental effects of capitalism and the interconnected catastrophes of its development. Historically, Indigenous cultural burning shaped western landscapes that provided for human and nonhuman needs, while remaining resilient to environmental disturbances. Capitalist expansion effected a rift in the relationship between humans and fire through dispossession of Native Americans, commodity production, and fire exclusion. This metabolic rift is beset by economic crises, and human displacement enabled the U.S. to mobilize large groups of precarious workers to fight fires which it continues to do today. Rapid and complete fire elimination has left a legacy of unhealthy forests and grasslands that occasionally provide fuel for wildfires that threaten people, structures, and natural resources requiring suppression. This burn-fight-burn cycle, or wildfire paradox, exemplifies what Engels called the “revenge of nature” in which the supposed subjugation of nature exposes humans to unimagined vulnerability. Modern wildfire science evolved in relation to U.S. imperialist military and economic domination that increased global economic activity among Global North countries in the aftermath of World War II. This Great Acceleration increased carbon dioxide emissions responsible for climate change that, in turn has exacerbated wildfire activity as well as propelling human settlement in and near uninhabited, wild areas that spark fires. In recent decades an alliance of polluting industries, utilities, forest owners, and the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) sector, have been profiting from the continued CO2 emissions that drive wildfires using carbon trading, third party liability arrangements and novel insurance products with disastrous results. This dissertation concludes with a discussion of possible avenues for changing the relationship between humans and wildland fire to avert further catastrophe.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/29296
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregon
dc.rightsAll Rights Reserved.
dc.subjectFinancialization of Natureen_US
dc.subjectMarxist Political Economyen_US
dc.subjectMetabolic Riften_US
dc.subjectMilitary Keynesianismen_US
dc.subjectWildfireen_US
dc.titleAN ACCUMULATION OF CATASTROPHE: A POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WILDFIRE IN THE WESTERN UNITED STATES
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
thesis.degree.disciplineEnvironmental Studies Program
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Oregon
thesis.degree.leveldoctoral
thesis.degree.namePh.D.

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