“Something in You Also Burns Away”: After the High Fens Fire, Grief for Damaged Landscapes Gains Attention

“When a landscape burns down, even if you are dozens of kilometers away, something in you also burns away a little.” Writer and cultural historian David Van Reybrouck uses those words to describe the grief that followed the fire in Belgium’s High Fens.

“

When a landscape burns down, even if you are dozens of kilometers away, something in you also burns away a little.

He calls the feeling “landscape pain,” which he says grows stronger when people have a personal connection to a place. Van Reybrouck has known the High Fens since he was a teenager, when his first backpacking trip took him from Eupen to Malmedy across the nature reserve. While staying in northern France during a summer of wildfires, he followed their spread on a map. The fire in the High Fens hit him particularly hard because of his bond with the landscape.

“

Something of yourself always remains behind in a place where you have been. And that place always remains with you in your body.

Memories remain embedded in places, he says. “Something of yourself always remains behind in a place where you have been. And that place always remains with you in your body.” Stef Craps, a professor, says society must create space for this kind of grief.

“

We have framed it for too long as something for the far left, when it is a national security and public health issue.

For Van Reybrouck, the damage is not only emotional. He worries about the speed of environmental change and the consequences of the climate crisis. Scientists have warned about the risks for 30 years, he says, while too little has been done. “We have framed it for too long as something for the far left, when it is a national security and public health issue.” He points to the money found for F-35 fighter jets but not for a single firefighting helicopter, and concludes: “We are mistaken about who our enemy is.”

“

We are mistaken about who our enemy is.