The national media and much of America is watching the Colorado wildfire drama in rapt, apocalyptic fascination. For those who are just now recognizing the scope of the disaster, S&R has been writing about this (and predicting it) for some time now. If you’d like to better understand the causes of the explosion of wildfires in the summer of 2012, here’s a quick set of links to get you caught up.

None of this puts out a fire or saves a home, but there’s value in understanding those pictures you’re seeing on the news in context (because corporate news outlets aren’t likely to help their viewers to the deeper truths underlying the images). Perhaps if we do a better job of grasping why the summer of 2012 is playing out this way, then future summers might be less this way….