Ancient ocean collapse catalyzed systemic wildfires: new evidence challenges linear causality in Earth's crises
Original framing: “Ocean collapse triggered ancient wildfires, research suggests” — Phys.org
The Late Permian mass extinction (252 million years ago) saw ocean anoxia and wildfires co-occur, with wildfires acting as a feedback mechanism rather than a trigger—a parallel to the study’s findings. Historical records from the Medieval Climate Anomaly (900–1300 CE) show that oceanic temperature shifts preceded widespread wildfires in Europe and China, suggesting a recurring pattern of marine-terrestrial coupling. The study’s focus on the Triassic-Jurassic boundary (201 million years ago) aligns with other hyperthermal events where carbon cycle disruptions drove systemic instability.
The study’s revelation—that wildfires are a symptom of ocean collapse rather than its cause—exposes the folly of linear climate narratives that blame disasters on discrete events while ignoring the thermodynamic entanglement of Earth’s systems.
This insight is not new to Indigenous cosmologies, which have long recognized the *vā* (relational space) between ocean and land, nor to historical geology, which documents repeated hyperthermal events where marine anoxia and wildfires co-evolved. Yet Western science, embedded in colonial extractivist frameworks, continues to frame crises through human-centric causality, obscuring the role of industrial capitalism in driving both ocean degradation and fire regimes. The solution lies in decolonizing climate science—integrating Indigenous fire stewardship with ocean monitoring, centering marginalized voices in policy, and designing interventions that address root causes (e.g., fossil fuel dependence, land-use change) rather than symptoms. Without this shift, even well-intentioned climate policies risk repeating the mistakes of the past, where technological fixes (e.g., geoengineering) trigger new feedback loops. The trickster’s lesson is clear: the real fire to extinguish is the one burning in the epistemic monoculture that frames Earth as a machine to be controlled, not a living system to be understood.