On Present-Day Wildfires: When Law, Society, Nature, and Anthropic Activities Combine. A Multi- to Inter-Disciplinary Analysis

Social sciences are constantly developing, and new challenges posed by climate change and the intricate relationship between mankind and the environment are resulting into new approaches to various socio-juridical issues. However, these approaches are challenged by phenomena showing a dual natural-anthropic origin, such as wildfires. Where to draw the line between a natural event that helped shaping landscapes and contributed to the evolution of terrestrial organisms for hundreds of millions of years, and anthropic-driven natural disasters which are all but indistinguishable from actual crimes? These questions lead to new multi- to inter-disciplinary evaluation processes meant to characterize wildfires from several standpoints, each with a contribution from a specific discipline. Via one such approach, this paper demonstrates that – at least in the context of the European Union – heterogeneous laws and regulations should indeed focus more on the link between large anthropic wildfires and natural disasters. Furthermore, the effects of wildfire-related pollutants on both the climate and human health should be accounted for in rulings.