The Environmental Boomerang: Wildfires, Ice Melt, and Capitalism’s Climate Crisis

What Goes Around Comes Around

In his seminal work, The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon explores the cyclical nature of violence, something he refers to as the “imperial boomerang.” Through this concept, Fanon introduces the notion that the oppression and exploitation that imperial powers inflict upon other nations will inevitably return to destabilize the imperial core.

This idea serves as an effective framework for understanding the repercussions of imperialism, and it can similarly be applied to environmental crises we face today.

The premise of this “environmental boomerang,” as it were, describes how over a century of environmental exploitation, capitalist greed, and shortsighted policies are apparently coming back to haunt the very societies that perpetuated them.

Wildfires as a Symptom of Systemic Failure

Nowhere is this phenomenon more immediately apparent than in the devastating wildfires currently raging across California, to say nothing of those blazing in Arizona and throughout other parts of the United States.

These fires stem from systemic failures: unimpeded environmental destruction, governmental incompetence, corporate greed and the dismissal of generations-old forestry practices.

What had heretofore been known as “fire season” has now become a year-round concern in many areas of the country.

Like the imperial boomerang, the consequences of unsustainable practices have become inescapable, inevitably returning to destroy the very system that gave rise to them.

With its destruction, so too crumbles any illusion of American exceptionalism; for there is absolutely nothing exceptional about a nation so woefully, catastrophically unprepared for disaster as to be rendered powerless, incapable of protecting those over whom it rules.

Erasing Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Ironically, the region was not always the tinderbox for untamed wildfires that it is today. One of the most striking aspects highlighted by these wildfires is the devastating impact of erasing Indigenous ecological knowledge.

For millennia, long before the California gold rush and ensuing genocide, Indigenous peoples cultivated and maintained the land, and understood the delicate balance required to sustain ecosystems.

Controlled burns were a cornerstone of that stewardship, used to clear overgrowth and limit the impact of wildfires.

In 1850, settlers prohibited controlled burns—this essential practice for maintaining healthy ecosystems—in an effort to prevent Indigenous peoples from managing lands settlers coveted for themselves.

With the establishment of the U.S. Forest Service, early leaders like Henry S. Graves and William B. Greeley perpetuated prejudiced views of Indigenous practices, dismissing controlled burns as primitive and unscientific.

This shortsighted suppression ignored the vital role such burns play in preventing larger, catastrophic fires.

Although the right to conduct controlled burns has recently been returned to some Indigenous lands, decades of suppression and ecological disruption have left these ecosystems profoundly altered.

Restoring them to their pre-colonial conditions is a monumental task, requiring more time and effort than the past few years can provide.

What’s more, the US Forest Service, last October, ended preventative controlled burns “for the foreseeable future,” to ensure “availability of staff and equipment in case (emphasis added) of potential wildfires.”

Although the ignorant disregard of preventative strategies in favor of remedial ones is not new, it’s painfully emblematic of how colonialism indifferently disrupts natural systems, and how, even today, it has a hand in the ongoing desecration of the earth.

This irony highlights how colonial policies that dispossessed Indigenous peoples of their land have come back around, displacing those Americans who currently inhabit the land.

How the Crisis Ignited

Wildfires are naturally occurring in many ecosystems, but human activities have undeniably magnified their frequency and intensity, transforming them into catastrophic events.

Climate change, driven by fossil fuel consumption and deforestation, is a primary accelerant.

Rising global temperatures have created prolonged heatwaves and droughts, drying out vegetation and making vast landscapes highly flammable.

Early snowmelt has further exacerbated water scarcity, leaving reservoirs empty when they are needed most.

Meanwhile, urban sprawl into fire-prone areas has increased human vulnerability, with little investment in fire-resistant infrastructure or adequate mitigation measures.

As mentioned, decades of suppressing natural fire cycles have further allowed dry vegetation to accumulate, creating ladder fuel for larger and more destructive fires.

In the past decade alone, wildfires have displaced thousands of families, blanketed entire regions in toxic smoke and accumulated tens of billions of dollars in damages.

Utility Negligence and Systemic Failures

Utility mismanagement, both private and municipal, has been a significant factor in California’s wildfire crisis, exacerbating the risks and impacts of these devastating events.`

Private Utility Failures

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), California’s largest investor-owned utility, has been implicated in numerous catastrophic wildfires due to outdated and poorly maintained infrastructure.

The 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85 people, was sparked by PG&E equipment. Despite repeated warnings, the company had long diverted funds intended for infrastructure upgrades toward shareholder dividends and executive bonuses.

Adding to this mismanagement, Southern California Edison (SCE) has also faced lawsuits and investigations for its role in igniting wildfires.

In the 2020 Eaton Fire, SCE’s equipment was identified as the likely cause, leading to significant property damage and the displacement of residents.

SCE is now facing additional lawsuits related to its role in more recent fires, including ongoing wildfires in Los Angeles.

Reports suggest that SCE’s equipment may have sparked these fires, intensifying scrutiny on the company’s safety measures and maintenance practices.

Both PG&E and SCE exemplify how private utilities, driven by shareholder interests, have repeatedly failed to invest in modernizing their infrastructure or implementing adequate fire prevention strategies.

Municipal Utility Failures

Municipal utilities have not fared much better. Entities like the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the nation’s largest publicly owned utility, have also faced scrutiny for failing to adopt proactive wildfire safety measures.

Unlike other utilities, LADWP has not implemented widespread power shutoffs during high-risk conditions, leaving its aging infrastructure vulnerable to sparking fires.

During recent wildfires, such as the Palisades Fire, firefighters reported inadequate resources, which have severely hampered containment efforts.

Investigations have revealed years of mismanagement and corruption within LADWP, highlighting a broader pattern of neglect in maintaining vital infrastructure.

Recent budget cuts have further strained emergency response capabilities.

For example, the Los Angeles Fire Department’s 2024-2025 budget faced a $17.6 million reduction, affecting critical resources and overtime pay.

This cut, primarily affecting overtime pay and critical resources, has been criticized for potentially weakening the department’s ability to effectively respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires.

As is often the case with products of American systems, the consequences of these fires extend far beyond the nation’s imposing artificial boundaries; they are a significant driver of a global catastrophe with far-reaching repercussions.

The Global Feedback Loop

The environmental boomerang is not a concept that describes some far away looming event; instead, it explains the stark reality unfolding in real time.

The incessant fires have become embedded as a major component in a cycle of global ecological instability, accelerating polar ice melt and amplifying feedback loops that deepen the climate crisis.

Smoke and ash from wildfires are carried vast distances, eventually settling on polar ice and snow.

This soot, darkening the surface, diminishes the ice's natural reflectivity—a phenomenon called albedo reduction. As the ice grows darker, it absorbs more sunlight, hastening its melt and driving sea levels higher.

The loss of reflective ice triggers far-reaching consequences, disrupting global weather systems. The destabilization of the Arctic weakens the polar jet stream, causing it to meander unpredictably.

These disruptions lead to extended heatwaves and stagnant weather systems, exacerbating droughts and intensifying wildfire risks in areas like the western United States.

At the same time, the warming atmosphere, now capable of holding more moisture, redistributes precipitation unevenly.

Some regions endure increased rainfall and flooding, while others—such as California and Arizona—are left to weather prolonged dry seasons, creating the perfect storm for catastrophic wildfires.

On the off-chance that the region does receive rain, toxic rain runoff adds another layer to this devastating cycle. As wildfires burn through vast swaths of land, the resulting ash and debris mix with rainwater, creating polluted runoff that seeps into rivers, reservoirs, and groundwater.

This toxic runoff carries heavy metals, chemicals, and other pollutants, further degrading ecosystems and endangering public health. The damage extends beyond soil erosion and water contamination—it disrupts agriculture, poisons aquatic life, and undermines already strained public water systems.

Recommended viewing: Vice Sn 2, Ep 2 (2015), in which the global feedback loop is explained quite well

In Greenland, the effects are stark. Between 2010 and 2023, the Greenland Ice Sheet lost 563 cubic miles of ice—enough to fill Lake Victoria.

A heatwave in 2023, worsened by soot from Canadian wildfires, amplified melting across the ice sheet.

Similar patterns are unfolding in Antarctica, where the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers—dubbed “Doomsday Glaciers”—are retreating at rates of up to one kilometer (over half a mile) per year.

If these glaciers collapse entirely, global sea levels could rise by up to five meters, inundating coastal cities and displacing untold millions.

These changes are already being felt in vulnerable regions like Bangladesh and Pacific Island nations, where rising seas threaten to submerge entire communities.

Extreme weather events, including hurricanes and floods, are becoming more frequent and severe, contributing to the feedback loop, and reinforcing global instability.

The Role of Greed and Political Failure

Corporate Negligence: ExxonMobil and the Fossil Fuel Industry

At the root of the environmental boomerang lies capitalism’s insatiable appetite for profit. For decades, corporations like ExxonMobil have prioritized short-term economic gains over long-term sustainability, fully aware of the catastrophic ecological impact of their actions.

Internal research from the 1970s accurately predicted the trajectory of man-made climate change, including its cascading impacts such as prolonged heatwaves, droughts, and extreme weather events—key drivers of forest fires. Rather than acting on this knowledge, ExxonMobil chose to suppress its findings.

The company instead invested heavily in misinformation campaigns, funding climate denial to protect its profits, delaying meaningful climate action for decades.

Through crony capitalism and aggressive lobbying, ExxonMobil—indeed, the Western oil industry at large—ensured that policymakers prioritized corporate interests over environmental responsibility, blocking initiatives that could curtail profits or spur significant reform.

Privatization of Water Resources

Capitalism-sanctioned corporate overreach extends far beyond fossil fuels, to be sure. One of its most insidious manifestations lies in the privatization of essential natural resources, such as water.

Under the guise of "efficient management," water privatization often results in corporations commodifying what should be a public good—and further, a human right—extracting vast quantities from natural reserves and selling it back to communities at inflated prices.

Water privatization also exacerbates ecological crises. By draining aquifers, diverting rivers, and monopolizing water rights, these corporations disrupt ecosystems and deprive local communities of resources vital for both sustainability and resilience during crises.

The Wonderful Resnicks

In California, Stuart and Linda Resnick, owners of the agricultural giant Wonderful, have quietly amassed control of a sizeable chunk of the state’s groundwater, an invaluable resource with regard to the state’s sustainability.

Through the privatization of the Kern Water Bank in 1994, one of California’s largest water reserves, the Resnicks secured access to an invaluable public resource.

Their empire grows water-intensive crops such as almonds, pistachios, and citrus, consuming over 150 billion gallons annually—even as working-class Californians endure water scarcity, rising costs, and rationing.

Water-intensive products from Wonderful Brands include many household items

Linda Resnick has dismissed criticism of this massive consumption, claiming it represents only 1% of California’s total water usage.

While technically accurate, 150 billion gallons is objectively an extraordinary amount—enough to sustain countless households at a time when access to drinking water is increasingly becoming a concern.

To put the consumption of 150 billion gallons of water into perspective:

• Municipal Supply in California: In California, approximately 4 billion gallons of water are withdrawn and delivered daily for domestic use. At this rate, 150 billion gallons would supply the entire state’s domestic water needs for nearly 38 days.

• Household Usage: The average California resident uses 146 gallons of water daily in and around their home. With 150 billion gallons, nearly 1.4 billion individual daily water usages could be supported, equivalent to providing for every California resident (about 39 million people) for over 36 days.

• Conservation Potential: If every California resident reduced their shower duration by just one minute, approximately 21 billion gallons of water could be saved annually. By comparison, the significance of 150 billion gallons is staggering; it’s over seven times this potential savings—enough to fill more than 228,600 Olympic-sized pools.

The consequences of such hoarding are glaring. For instance, during recent fires in the Pacific Palisades area, the Santa Ynez Reservoir— a reserve holding 117 million gallons of water for "for domestic use and fire fighting purposes in the Pacific Palisades area"—was offline for repairs, contributing to dry fire hydrants and low water pressure.

While private agricultural empires like the Resnicks’ thrive, local communities face compounded risks. Of course, there are other corporate entities beyond California whose designs on public water are equally dubious.

Nestlé

Nestlé is one such company. The conglomerate has similarly drawn ire for aggressively privatizing water resources, extracting millions of gallons from drought-stricken areas to bottle and sell for profit.

Nestlé's bottling operations in regions like California have sparked outrage, as the company continues to withdraw water even during severe droughts, exacerbating resource scarcity for local communities.

For example, up until 2024, BlueTriton Brands (formerly Nestlé Waters North America), had been extracting millions of gallons of water annually from Strawberry Creek in the San Bernardino National Forest under a permit that expired decades prior, paying only a nominal fee while surrounding communities struggled with dwindling water supplies.

Although the U.S. Forest Service denied BlueTriton’s application for a new permit in 2024 and ordered the cessation of its water extraction operations, the company has since filed a legal suit in an effort to regain control over the water resources it previously exploited.

Still listed as CEO Emeritus, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe when he was CEO of Nestlé, describing the notion of water as a public right as “extreme”

Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola's water usage practices have drawn widespread criticism, particularly for allegations of water hoarding and the privatization of critical water resources.

Communities in water-stressed regions, such as Plachimada, India, and Kaladera, Rajasthan, have highlighted how Coca-Cola's bottling operations significantly depleted local water tables.

In Plachimada, residents reported a sharp decline in both the quantity and quality of water shortly after the establishment of a Coca-Cola facility, leading to public outrage and the eventual closure of the plant in 2004.

Similarly, Kaladera experienced a steep drop in groundwater levels within five years of the plant's operations, further intensifying water scarcity in the region.

Meanwhile, in regions like Valencia, Spain, Coca-Cola extracts water from local aquifers for its bottled water brand, aquaBona, creating a paradoxical situation where residents are forced to buy bottled water sourced from their own community.

The company’s reputation during times of crisis, such as its refusal to reduce water withdrawals in drought-stricken Cape Town, South Africa, further underscore the tension between corporate profit motives and the equitable distribution of essential resources.

Political Failures: The Paris Agreement and Beyond

Political leaders have been equally culpable in exacerbating the climate crisis.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, nearly 200 nations pledged to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

Yet in 2024, the planet breached this critical threshold, reaching 1.6°C.

The agreement, heralded as a turning point, relied on voluntary commitments with no binding enforcement mechanisms—a structural flaw that enabled widespread inaction.

Many nations, including the United States, have failed to meet their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) for emissions reductions. Major industries—fossil fuels, industrial agriculture, and deforestation—remain largely unchallenged.

The lack of stringent international accountability and insufficient ambition in emissions pledges have rendered the 1.5°C goal increasingly unattainable.

Systemic Inequities in Firefighting Resources

California’s mismanagement extends beyond water and climate pledges to the inequities baked into its firefighting system. Firefighters face significant challenges, with approximately 30% of personnel comprised of incarcerated inmates paid far below minimum wage. These workers risk their lives combating infernos with inadequate resources, exposing the stark disparities in how the state values human lives.

Convergence of Greed, Neglect, and Crisis

The interconnected systems of corporate greed, political failure, and environmental mismanagement reveal the underlying dynamics driving the climate crisis.

These systems prioritize wealth and power over the well-being of people and the planet. The result is a perfect storm of unchecked exploitation, inadequate governance, and environmental degradation—a catastrophe that has been decades in the making.

A Time for Reckoning

The effects of the environmental boomerang are no longer part of some out-of-sight, out-of-mind concept, but a stark reality unfolding before our eyes.

Wildfires, polar ice melt, and climate feedback loops are no longer distant threats, but immediate crises born from decades of ignorance, exploitation and greed.

Big Oil’s suppression of climate science, as well as the incompetence and corruptibility of political leaders set the stage for a future fraught with instability and suffering.

Efforts to reverse the damage are no longer viable. The point of no return has passed. What lies ahead is not prevention, but the grim reality of slowing an inevitable march toward a harsher, less forgiving world.

Fires will grow larger, seas will rise higher, and extreme weather will become the norm.

The time for false hope has ended; what remains is the solemn recognition that the world in which our children grow old will be unrecognizable compared to that of preceding generations. It didn’t have to be this way.