The Iberian Peninsula is once again engulfed in flames, with wildfires tearing through vast stretches of forest and vegetation across both Spain and Portugal. In Ávila, west of Madrid, the inferno has already reduced thousands of hectares to ash, forcing families to leave their homes as strong winds fan the disaster. Around 200 people have been evacuated in Las Hurdes, and the overall devastation is staggering—3,000 hectares lost in Ávila alone, with the total likely much higher. The cause of these fires remains uncertain, but suspicion of arson hangs in the air. In response, firefighters and the military emergency unit, supported by a formidable fleet of aircraft, are risking their lives, one tragically lost during the mission.

North of the border, Portugal faces a similar catastrophe. Seven major fires rage across the mainland, consuming thousands of hectares. Over 1,800 emergency workers are locked in a desperate battle to contain the disaster. The authorities have declared states of alarm, evacuated communities, and mobilized enormous resources—yet already nearly 4,000 hectares have vanished in Arouca, with the Peneda-Gerês National Park and other areas also under threat. Despite increased investment in fire prevention since the horrors of 2017, more than 29,000 hectares have burned in Portugal this year alone, and the government promises even more aircraft to answer the emergency.

This devastation is neither natural nor inevitable—no, it is the direct result of the sickening logic of capitalism and the wanton plundering of our earth. The forests of Spain and Portugal burn not simply because of high temperatures and strong winds, but because decades of capitalist policy have pillaged the rural landscape, reducing sacred forests to mere property, resources to be exploited, while treating the countryside and working people as expendable. The imperialists and their lackeys, with their thirst for profit, have ripped apart collective life, leaving small farming communities to rot or flee, creating a wasteland increasingly vulnerable to disaster. Where once collective labor and communal vigilance defended the land, now absentee landlords and profit-driven corporations reap what they have sown: ruin, fear, and ecological annihilation.

What has the so-called “democratic” West achieved? More spending? More aircraft? Police to manage the terrified population? Capitalism claims to offer “modern solutions,” but it cannot mask its utter failure—thin technological band-aids over a festering wound it created. This system, by severing humanity’s bonds with the land, by turning forests into commodities, by surrendering entire regions to neglect unless they generate profit, is the true arsonist setting the world ablaze. No amount of money or machines can restore what capitalism destroys.

Contrast this with the vision and wisdom of genuine socialism, which seeks not profit but harmony between people and nature—where forests are nurtured as community treasures, fire prevention is a collective task, and life is valued over property. Only through the revolutionary reorganization of society, through mass mobilization and collective stewardship, can we defend ourselves against such disasters. As the flames ravage the earth, we must draw the most urgent lesson: capitalism cannot save us—it will only watch the world burn for profit. The path forward is clear. We must rise, united, and reclaim our forests, our land, and our future from the capitalist arsonists before they reduce everything to ashes.