This petition calls for the establishment of an army of wildland firefighters here in the United States and in other countries. Currently we have about 14000 federal wildland firefighters in the U.S. That’s not nearly enough. We need 100,000 to 200,000 firefighters to be available to fight wildland fires anywhere in the U.S. and, with the consent of the U.S. Congress, managed by the United Nations to fight wildfires in other countries, where wildfires have the potential to become widespread. Whether the wildfires are happening in the United States or in foreign countries, the carbon dioxide emissions impacts affect all of us.

Australia’s 2019 wildfire, which had been burning for months into 2020, was calamitous, dumping over 400 megatonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, over two-thirds of their national emissions. The United States and New Zealand sent altogether a few hundred firefighters to Australia, when thousands of firefighters from many countries and accompanying equipment, were needed to stop this conflagration. This is not meant to criticize the firefighters. All wildland firefighters are heroes. They risk their lives fighting fires, working around dangerous terrain, encountering snakes and other wild animals, all this in helping to preserve forests. Because they're firefighters they would also be called upon to help prevent wildfires by clearing dangerous amounts of underbrush, strategic thinning, controlled burns and other preventive measures that bring about healthy forest conditions.

The amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere continues to grow. We need time to slow the advance of climate change and the anticipated increase in temperatures. Armies of firefighters from many countries with all the necessary equipment would help in granting us this time by fighting wildfires more effectively and limiting the amount of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere. These firefighters, like United Nations peacekeepers, are members of their own country’s national service first, but could be available to the UN. Final copies of this petition would go to President Joe Biden, John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate,  UN Secretary-General António Guterres and all UN ambassadors and U.S. congressional leaders.

In 2019 there have been widespread fires in Russia’s Siberian forest, Indonesia’s rainforest, the Amazon rainforest and Australia.  These fires have been global in scope, where the smoke was carried to neighboring countries and beyond, impacting population centers and people’s health. But because the fires caused a release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere and the diminishing of a carbon dioxide absorbing sink, these fires jeopardize everyone on the planet and future generations and compounds the escalating increase in atmospheric CO2. In turn this damages our ability to slow the advance of climate change. Boreal and taiga forest fires are especially dangerous because they lead to permafrost thawing and peat fires, releasing even more carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere.

Vast numbers of firefighting personnel in the thousands and plenty of fire equipment would better extinguish these fires, including the recent wildfires in California. Participating countries could maintain an army of firefighters to address the need to stop wildfires in their own countries from becoming widespread conflagrations and allow the United Nations to coordinate the use of these personnel and equipment to fight wildfires in other countries.

Please sign this petition that urges the establishment of a wildland firefighters organization for the United States, as well as for other countries and managed by the United Nations to fight wildfires all over the world, with the consent of the home country. Again, final copies of this petition would go to President Joe Biden, John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and all UN ambassadors and U.S. congressional leaders.