Forest Fires: Cost of Climate Change

 Forest Fires: Cost of Climate Change

By – Sai Prasanna Thapa (Chemistry Dept)

According to Wikipedia, climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Caused by natural and human reasons, climate change is a crucial trial marked by life-threatening losses involving humans and landscapes. Rise in sea level and temperature, extended drought periods, abnormal variation in precipitation events, shrunken glaciers etc. are few notable effects of climate change.

picture courtesy wikipedia 

Climate change is a significant component that elevates the risk of fire in forests. The drying of the organic matter in the forests is augmented by climate change and has increased the number of forest fires between the years 1984 and 2020. Researches confirm that due to an increase in the temperature-creating dry and warm conditions in the Earth-prolongs the life of a wildfire. The U.S. West projections show that an average annual 1 degree C temperature increase would escalate the median burned area per year, as much as 600 per cent in some types of forests.

Climate change also contributes to the spread of the mountain pine beetle and other insects that can weaken or kill trees, building up the fuels in a forest. Untimely Spring snowmelt takes place when warm weather arrives early. Forests are considered flammable about a month after the snowmelt ends, leading to a much longer fire season, where forests are susceptible to fire. One major impact of climate change is an increase in severe storms which carry a lot of energy.

In few parts of the world, fire season has stretched up to two and a half months longer, invalidating what was 50 years ago. Randy Anderson, a longtime firefighter and superintendent of the Snake River Hotshots (a Type I Interagency Hotshot Crew dedicated to wildland fire suppression), told the team of ‘Years of Living Dangerously’, “You can’t deny the fact that it’s getting warmer and drier. And we’re seeing it in the effects of the wildland fires.” Anderson then added that he was astonished by an over 20,000-acre fire when he first started fighting fires in 1987 and now the numbers have risen to 400,000-acre fires.

Scientists from the University of Idaho and Columbia University stated that “Observed warming and drying have significantly increased fire-season fuel aridity, fostering a more favourable fire environment across forested systems,” in a 2016 study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Forest fires lead to an increase in the risk of lives, properties and public health. Moreover, levels of carbon dioxide increase in the atmosphere, thereby contributing to the greenhouse effect and climate change. Erosion of the forest floor leads to floods and landslides. The ashes produced, rip the Earth from the nutrients which cannot be renewed. Furthermore, forest fires lead to the extinction of animals and plants species.

Across the country and around the world, activists are working together to change the climate and environment. But there are things you can do at home, take an active role and make a difference. Here are a few:

·      Invest in energy-efficient appliances.

·      Recycle old appliances.

·      Use LED bulbs.

·      Compost.

·      The fridge door should be sealed tightly.

·      Opt for an environment-friendly diet.

·      Control water usage.

·      Plant trees.

·      Use green power often.

·      Service your vehicle regularly.

.      Encourage the use of renewable energies.

 

“If there’s a world here in a hundred years, it’s going to be saved by tens of millions of little things.”

    —PETE SEEGER