You knew this opinion piece would bubble up at some point. The Maui wildfires are the most devastating in a century, with over 100 people dead and hundreds more still missing. The cost of the damages has soared into the billions as recovery efforts are underway. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined, but it’s likely from damaged power lines due to the high winds that blasted the state from a hurricane off its coast.
But for some, the Maui wildfires, which have destroyed communities and shattered families, was an opportunity to bash America and blame the real culprit of these fires: white people. Now is not the time for pseudointellectual lectures about the perils of colonialism:
As I’ve watched events unfold after the recent fires in Maui, these lines have blurred, revealing shared histories and mutual vulnerabilities and bringing a profound sense of déjà vu. I’m haunted by the news of essential infrastructure crumbling when most needed and of residents left to fend for themselves in the absence of government aid. Most of all, I shudder with recognition at the palpable fear that recovery will lead only to displacement and dispossession.
If you type “what caused the fires in Maui” into your search bar (as I did), you will be left with no clear answer. Articles cast blame on outdated power lines, nonnative grasses, a faltering water system and compounding weather and climate-driven factors.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has acknowledged that the climate crisis is rooted in the exploitation and degradation of the environment, people and cultures, which were foundational principles of colonialism. Settlers prioritized immediate resource gains over long-term ecological health, shunning Indigenous land management practices as outdated barriers to progress.
To understand these fires, you have to rewind to the 19th century, when Christian missionaries transformed an area that was mostly wetlands into large-scale sugar plantations that required the digging of tunnels and the building of reservoirs to divert water to mills and away from sustainable agriculture. Dominated by American investors, the sugar and pineapple industries led to deforestation and left native Hawaiians with insufficient water for their crops. (via NYT)
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I had to stop there. What the hell is this? To understand the fires, we must look to the 19th century. No, we don’t. There are more pressing matters at hand, like finding the hundreds that are still missing, identifying the bodies of the deceased, and figuring out what sparked the brush fires. The ATF is on the ground, citing Hawaiian Electric, the main power company, for possibly tampering with evidence in the investigation. Reportedly, some workers moved debris at sites considered ground zero for the blaze. Why wasn’t the alarm system triggered, and did these emergency management officials leave the conference they attended off-island when the fires broke out? In all phases, the state response was abysmal, partially explained by some of these folks not having any disaster crisis experience.
Christian missionaries’ influence is key to unlocking the cause of the fire. It’s astounding how the Left twists every issue for them to deliver some historically illiterate lecture about how America is evil. Wildfires have nothing to do with colonialism—even borderline mental defectives can figure that out.
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