US: When it comes to wildfires, the insurance industry is behind the curve - Opinion

We cannot avoid wildfires, but there is a way to limit disasters by controlling the built environment and the economic incentives that put us at risk.

The real estate industry needs to be better educated about the value of wildfire-resistant construction and landscapes, so it can use safety as a selling point while also educating the consumer about risk mitigation, writes Toddy Steelman in the Los Angeles Times. He warns that "until we deal with the complexities of the human systems that create these problems, we are committing ourselves to a repeated cycle of disaster."

Toddi Steelman is co-director of the Fire Chasers Project at North Carolina State University and executive director of the School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan.