单选题 Though often viewed as a problem for western states, the growing frequency of wildfires is anational concern because of its impact on federal tax dollars, says Professor Max Moritz, a specialistin fire ecology and management.

In 2015, the US Forest Service for the first time spent more than half of its $5.5 billion annualbudget fighting fires－nearly double the percentage it spent on such efforts 20 years ago. In effect,fewer federal funds today are going towards the agency&39;s other work－such as forest conservation,watershed and cultural resources management, and infrastructure upkeep －that affect the lives of all Americans. Another nationwide concern is whether public funds from other agencies are going into constructionin fire-prone districts. As Moritz puts it, how often are federal dollars building homes that are likelyto be lost to a wildfire？

“It’s already a huge problem from a public expenditure perspective for the whole country, We need to take a magnifying glass to that. Like, “Wait a minute, is this OK ？”“Do we want insteadto redirect those funds to concentrate on lower-hazard parts of the landscape？ ” Such a view would require a corresponding shift in the way US society today views fire, researcherssay.

For one thing, conversations about wildfires need to be more inclusive. Over the past decade, thefocus has been on climate change－how the warming of the Earth from greenhouse gases is leadingto conditions that worsen fires. While climate is a key element, Moritz says, it shouldn’t come at the expense of the rest of theequation.

“The human systems and the landscapes we live on are linked, and the interactions go both ways,"he says. Failing to recognize that, he notes, leads to "an overly simplified view of what the solutionsmight be. Our perception of the problem and of what the solution is becomes very limited. At the same time, people continue to treat fire as an event that needs to be wholly controlled andunleashed only out of necessity, says Professor Balch at the University of Colorado. But macknowledging fire&39;s inevitable presence in human life is an attitude crucial to developing the laws,policies, and practices that make it as safe as possible, she says.

“We’ve disconnected ourselves from living with fire, ” Balch says. “It is really important tounderstand and try and tease out what is the human connection with fire today. ”

While admitting that climate is a key element, Moritz notes that_____