Fire is not a tragedy. A tragedy is a story of human ambition and failure through human nature. The tragedy is building human housing in forest areas in inflammable materials without thought of fire protection or evacuation.
Fire is a natural process that clears the forest, so much so that many species are adapted to it. Pyrophitic seeds need the heat of a fire before they can germinate, to grow in the fertile ashes. Australian eucalyptus is an extreme example, that adds stripping bark and inflammable oils in their sap to fallen leaves, and secondary buds deep under the bark, so the fire burns fast and hot, they can sprout and the seeds grow, rapidly replenishing the forest.
Explanation: Sometimes, regions of planet Earth light up with fire. Since fire is the rapid acquisition of oxygen, and since oxygen is a key indicator of life, fire on any planet would be an indicator of life on that planet. Most of the Earth's land has been scorched by fire at some time in the past. Although causing many a tragedy, for many places on Earth fire is considered part of a natural ecosystem cycle. Large forest fires on Earth are usually caused either by humans or lightning and can be visible from orbit.
Fire is not a tragedy. A tragedy is a story of human ambition and failure through human nature. The tragedy is building human housing in forest areas in inflammable materials without thought of fire protection or evacuation. Fire is a natural process that clears the forest, so much so that many species are adapted to it. Pyrophitic seeds need the heat of a fire before they can germinate, to grow in the fertile ashes. Australian eucalyptus is an extreme example, that adds stripping bark and inflammable oils in their sap to fallen leaves, and secondary buds deep under the bark, so the fire burns fast and hot, they can sprout and the seeds grow, rapidly replenishing the forest.
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Click to play embedded YouTube video.
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_______ *DROESHOUT*
_________ {anagram}
_______ *HERODOTUS*
................................................
____ (1939) Encyclopedia Britannica on "Drama"
.
____ *HERODOTUS* had a lot to say about
____ *TRAGEDY* (i.e., *a GOAT-song* ) being a PATHOS
_____(i.e., the violent death of Dionysus/Osiris
_______ by *SPARAGMOS* or dismemberment):
.
<<...we have the express testimony of *HERODOTUS* that the ritual
_worship of Dionysus (the god of Drama) was the same as the ritual
___ worship of Osiris such that it involved a "sparagmos"
_ (dismemberment), mourning, search, discovery & resurrection.>>
.
____ HowEVER, *HERODOTUS* avoided directly mentioning
____Dionysus OR Osiris in this regard:
.
____ "When the Egyptians lament the god
___ whom I may not name in this connection"
_ "They lament but whom they lament I must not say" -- *HERODOTUS*
.
__ For in the manner of ancient religion, it was always necessary
____ that Dionysus or Osiris be represented by some surrogate.
.......................................................
In fact, ALL TRAGIC HEROS are simply surrogates of Dionysus/Osiris:
.
<<We find a frequent sparagmos of beings who have committed some sin:
.
____ [A]ctaeon by hounds
____ [D]irce by a bull
____ [O]rpheus by Maenads
____ [L]ycurgus by horses
____ [P]entheus by Maenads
____ [H]YPPOLYTUS by horses
.
This use of a surrogate was made easier by the fact that both at
Eleusis & in the Osiris rite the myth was conveyed by *tableaux*
____ (i.e., 'things shown') rather than by words.
.
___ Thus the death of Pentheus, wearing Dionysiac dress,
_ would be shown by exactly the same tableau as that of Dionysus.
. ____ THE TRUTH COULD BE SHOWN TO THE WISE
_ AND AT THE SAME TIME *VEILED FROM THE UNKNOWING*
.
____ Such facts help to explain the charge of
_"profaning the mysteries" brought against Aeschylus.>>
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Last edited by neufer on Sun Aug 26, 2018 2:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Technically, it doesn't say that fire itself is a tragedy, merely that it causes tragedy, and that much is true.
The lodgepole pine is another example of a species that requires fire to reseed. The Yellowstone fires back in '88 were devastating, but you can see the forest coming back now. All through Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, the lodgepole pine stands are dependent upon occasional fires to renew themselves.
I don't think the elk are all that "stunned". Wary, watchful, but fires are something they are instinctively wise about. Consider the photographer's take on this:
McColgan just happened to be standing on a bridge crossing the East Fork of the Bitterroot River in the Sula Complex of the Bitterroot National Forest in the state of Montana where he took what is now called his "elk bath" digital Image.
McColgan was employed by the Alaska Fire service and was on loan to Montana and acting as an expert on wildfire behavior.
McColgan just happened to be a contract fire analyst with a new camera and took digital pictures of two elk who escaped the fire by wading in the Bitterroot River. No big deal.
As a natural resource professional, McColgan understood both wildfire and wildlife. When asked about the elk, he assured that they "know where to go, where their safe zones are...a lot of wildlife did get driven down there to the river. There were some bighorn sheep there. A small deer was standing right underneath me, under the bridge."
Just as zero is not equal to infinity, everything coming from nothing is illogical.
JohnD wrote: ↑Sun Aug 26, 2018 11:26 am
Fire is not a tragedy. A tragedy is a story of human ambition and failure through human nature. The tragedy is building human housing in forest areas in inflammable materials without thought of fire protection or evacuation.
Fire is a natural process that clears the forest, so much so that many species are adapted to it. Pyrophitic seeds need the heat of a fire before they can germinate, to grow in the fertile ashes. Australian eucalyptus is an extreme example, that adds stripping bark and inflammable oils in their sap to fallen leaves, and secondary buds deep under the bark, so the fire burns fast and hot, they can sprout and the seeds grow, rapidly replenishing the forest.
Well, we could argue about the meaning of "tragedy", a word that is far broader than the simple literary meaning you reference. But most certainly, wildfire is no longer reasonably seen as a natural process, because we no longer have what could reasonably be described as natural ecosystems. Humans have drastically modified both the nature of forests as well as the global climate, resulting in fires of a magnitude and duration unknown in recorded history. Many of these fires are now so intense that they kill even the tree species that require fire as part of their reproductive cycle.
Chris
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Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory https://www.cloudbait.com
Postby visible-from-orbit man » Sun Aug 26, 2018 3:19 pm
Holy cow! Visible from orbit? That's truly amazing. Or maybe not. I have a 30,000 lumen flashlight that can easily be seen from the ISS. Or from Alpha Centauri with a big enough telescope.
Fire on Earth
