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Climate Change and The Increase of Wildfires
Climatic change is the occasional modification of earth’s climate emanating from changes in the atmosphere and cooperation between the atmosphere and other geological, chemical, biological and geographical factors. Climate changes create warmer, drier conditions, increased drought and longer fire season, boosting wildfire risk increases. Global warming is the first cause of climate change in that it’s driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases that contain almost 90% carbon dioxide and methane. Human activities such as fossil fuel burning for energy consumption has become the main source for these emissions, with additional contributions from agriculture, deforestation and industrial processes. This paper intends to address the causes of climatic change, the effects of global warming and ways to reduce climate change.
As the phenomenon of climate change is characterized by an increase in temperatures of the earth, global warming links to an increase of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, worsening the greenhouse effect. These effects are linked to human activities such as
Fossil fuels
The use of fossil fuels has become one of the first sources of global warmings, such as burning coal, oil, and gases. Fossil burns generate carbon gas that has put us at the greatest risk of irreversible changes in climatic change. Carbon dioxide forms the most heat-trapping gas. Emission of these trapping gases releases tiny particles known as aerosols; aerosol forms a suspension of solid particles or liquid droplets in the air. Aerosols impact on climate when they scatter light. Scattering or absorption of radiation, aerosols alter the planet’s reflectivity by depositing a layer of dark residue on ice and other bright surfaces. Aerosols from wildfires and industrial pollution are hastening the melting ice.
Global warming majorly tampers the ozone layer that helps absorb ultraviolet radiations from the sun, preventing it from reaching the Earth’s surface, where it can harm people, planets and animals. UV radiation is dangerous and causes health problems from eye dame to skin cancer. The ozone layer is the protective layer over Earth’s polar regions. Putting excess carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when coal, gas and oils are burned generate electricity or run cars. These gases spread around the planet like blankets keeping in solar heat that would be radiated out in space. This heat causes global warming that hence causes dry seasons, droughts. Wildfires are significant concerns during these seasons.
Deforestation
Green plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen during photosynthesis. Plants carry out reversed processes call respiration, in which they emit carbon dioxide but in smaller amounts than they take in during photosynthesis. The excess carbon is stored in plants, helping them to grow. Cutting down of trees and burned, they release carbon in the air as carbon dioxide. Therefore, deforestation and forest degradation contribute to global warming. Also, deforestation increases climate change, which increases the chances of vegetation drying out, increasing the risk of fires. Although wildfires are a natural occurrence, fire seasons are becoming more widespread due to climate change. Even in the tropical rainforest where fires are typical and damaging, hotter, drier weather caused by climatic change and poor land management creates conditions favorable for more frequent, larger and higher intensity wildfires.
Intensive farming.
Intensive farming causes global warming not only with ever-increasing livestock but also plant protection products and fertilizers. Cattle and sheep produce massive amounts of methane when digesting their foods; plants produce nitrogenous emissions. Producing more food out of the land requires heavy use of nitrogen-based fertilizers, which emits many nitrogenous oxides, which, therefore, contribute to climatic change. Intensive agriculture and fertilizer far much contribute to global warming, which in turn triggers drier seasons. Conversion of forest regions into agricultural farms is not a solution as the process favors the emission of greenhouse gases that alters the climate.
Industrial processes
Industries face a wide range of environmental challenges to their operations due to rapid climate change. Climate change is attributed to the reliance on industrial activities over the years. Toxic material and gas are burned and released into the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide and methane. These gases absorb radiation from the sun; they have direct impact on the temperature of the planet. Also the industries have played a role in air pollution. Toxic gases that factories release into the air, combined with those added by automobiles on the road, mean that we have a risk of developing chronic respiratory diseases, lunch cancer. Heart disease and many other illnesses.
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Climate change being one of the major causes of increased wildfires in many part of the world. Many areas of western US have faced major challenges in encountering large wildfire, California recording the largest record in the state. With increase in global warming large arears are becoming prone to drought and desert, this is due to deforestation or other factors of climatic change such as human activity and industrial activities. Climate change in US with some parts experiencing warmest temperatures has led to increase in drought which therefore provide favorable environment for fires, dryer conditions tend to allow for large, quickly- spreading wildfires. Claims states that fires were purposefully set to clear forests for agriculture or where rangelands were torched to get rid of sagebrush to improve grazing conditions.
There are many different factors that contribute to forest fires in a given year, including how many fires are ignited (lightning strikes, downed power lines, malfunctioned equipment’s, etc.) where the occur, how high temperatures are, how low precipitation has been and wind conditions where fires occurs. For any fire, local factors will play a large role such as examination of land use history and fuel loading. The amount of accumulated burnable vegetation was important for specific forest areas, the broad-scale increase in frequency of wildfire across western US has been driven primarily by sensitivity of fire regimes to recent changes in climate over relatively large area.
Climate change has motivated the increase in forest fires, natural variability has a hand in increase of wildfires. Abatzogloua suggest that since 1980s there has been alignment of natural variability tending towards less rains and snow with human causes warming. Climate models agree that temperatures have increased in US due to human activity, the human role in changes in rain and snow over that period is less clear-cut and varies greatly between models. High temperatures and low rain and snowfall are not the only driver of intense forest fires. The increased fuel-loading since the second half of the 20th century has also played a role, as the success in putting out wildfires has helped build up more and more burnable vegetation.
Fuel-loading and the damages resulting from wildfires have also been magnified by an increase in the number of people living in remote, forested areas in recent decades. Larger populations increase the political pressure to limit controlled burns and other preventative measures to reduce fuel load. At the same time, when fires do occur, there are now more scattered, remote homes that are difficult to effectively protect. Scientists point out that there are many actions that communities can take to mitigate fire risk, including improved building and landscaping practices to reduce fire risk and create defensible spaces, as well as developing emergency evacuation plans.
Reducing deforestation
Protecting natural forest from deforestation and degradation helps reduce emissions to the level needed to protect the world against the worst global warming impacts. Stopping deforestation not only solve global warming by itself, urgent actions is needed to cut the emissions. Problem cannot be solved if the role of tropical deforestation is ignored. Reduction of deforestation has various benefits other than reducing global warming. Forests are home to uniques species of animals and plants. Species such as jaguar are risking extinction if actions on protecting tropical forest habitat. However, forests are the being crucial sources of food, medicine and clean water for drinking. Forest help in regulation of regional rainfall and prevent both floods and droughts. This therefore play a role in contribution towards saving biodiversity and supporting sustainable development. Once deforestation have been controlled, drought conditions are reduced to a minimal chances of occurring and hence the chances of wildfires occurring are reduced to a significant value.
Another way of preventing occurrence of wildfires involved control of human activities. Human activities such us of nitrogenous fertilizers in farming, nitrogenous fertilizers can be replaced with manures from animal waste. Animal waste are natural and do not produce nitrogenous hazards or even carbon. Controlled emission carbon dioxide will reduce the high percentage of the carbon in the atmosphere thus reducing the impact on the ozone layer. Expansion of agricultural firms into the forest should be monitored. This give room for natural trees to grow hence restoring the climate change to its normal state.
Nature base mitigation solutions not only help in reducing greenhouse gas emission but also help in improve soil, air and water quality and enhance biodiversity. Agricultural sectors are responsible for over 10% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Carbon capture and storage.
The best way of mitigating the effects of fossil-fuel emissions is to increase nature based carbon capture and storage. Fossil fuels can be replaced by use of wind turbines as a source of energy. Wind turbines provides clean energy that does not affect the climatic change, despite its challenges such that the weather is not the same everywhere. The variable nature of wind means there are times when turbines are not turning.
Also reducing climate change involves reducing the flow of heat trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by either reducing sources of these gases. The goal of mitigation is to avoid significant interference with the climate system and stabilize greenhouse gas level in a timeframe sufficient to allow ecosystem to adapt naturally to climate change, ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed to sustainable manner.
Conclusion
Human induced climate change has contributed to changing patterns of extreme weather conditions across the globe, from longer and hotter heat waves to heavier rains. All weather events are not connected to climate change. Natural variability continues to play a key role in extreme weather, climate change has shifted the odds and change the natural limits, making certain types of extreme weather conditions more frequent. Extreme drought conditions have negatively resulted in increasing the chances of wildfires that may occur due to human activities or natural occurrence. Global warming as a result of various factors of climate change as geared the occurrence of wildfires around the world.
Allan, R, 2011; climate change; Human influence on rainfall. Nature 2011 volume 470, Pages 344-345
Ash, Andrew, 2011: coincidence or climate