This year’s forest fires in California, Oregon and Washington have proved to be the largest in the history of observations, burning nearly two million hectares of forest and killing at least 33 people. While some point out that forest fires in the West Bank of the United States are common and seasonal, others point to the fact that they are becoming increasingly devastating due to climate change.
–
Flames erupt from the Mexican border to the Sierra Nevada forest stands, people forced to leave their homes due to the air and direct fire threat, dead among both civilians and rescuers, missing, tourists trapped in a nature reserve and evacuated by helicopters, The iconic Golden Gate Bridge as a faint silhouette in the haze – news from California, Oregon and Washington in recent weeks can really be called exocalyptic. Fires, which are a seasonal phenomenon in these places, are raging twice as hard this time.
–
The fact:
- the first fires of the season began after lightning strikes during the storms of 16 and 17 August;
- On August 19, 367 fires were registered in the state of California (source: press release from the governor of California),
- The number of fires on 11 September was 7,718, of which 25 were large-scale (source: Wikipedia, BBC),
- the number of deaths by at least 33 by 13 September (source: AP), dozens missing – several sources (source: Wikipedia),
- burnt area (California, Oregon and Washington): about two million hectares (source: BBC);
–
Forest fires in the West Bank of the United States are nothing new. They usually run from late July to early November. They are driven by dry and strong winds, and in autumn they fade with the first rains in late October – early November. However, this season’s fires in the west coast states of the United States are much more devastating, both in terms of numbers and area. The heat wave of early September also acted as an aggravating factor for the spread of the fire this autumn, which, in combination with the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, further complicates firefighting and rescue operations.
–
This disaster has once again exacerbated the debate between those who deny climate change and those who believe that it is the new climatic conditions that have contributed to the increasingly devastating forest fires of the last decade.
–
The first is that the forests on the West Bank have been burning for a long time – for example, the fires of 1850 burned an area of about 17,000 square kilometers. President Trump also commented on climate change as an insignificant factor, stating in a pre-election speech that human negligence and poor forest management were to blame for the fall of fallen leaves and dry branches over the years.
–
Of course, places of fault are also a human factor – for example, the fire that broke out in Eldorado in early September caused use of pyrotechnics at a child sex discovery party. Furthermore, this was not the first time that burning started during the fire season due to pyrotechnics. However, these incidents are just isolated, small episodes in a huge sea of fires raging in the West Bank.
–
Taken together, the scale of these fires and the factors that contribute to their emergence call for more far-reaching and global conclusions.
–
At the end of last week, California Governor Gevin Newom issued a statement saying that fires are a direct consequence of climate change and that “the debate on climate change is over.” Newom points out that scientists predicted the current heat waves as a possible future several years ago, and these predictions have come true faster than promised.
–
Statistics show that nine of the ten hottest years in the history of observations have been experienced since 2005. Meanwhile, the average air temperature in California and Oregon has increased by one degree since 1900.
–
Heat and drought have caused millions of trees to die in California’s forests, creating more favorable conditions for the fire to spread.
–
In contrast, mountainous areas, which tend to have colder and wetter climates, are rapidly becoming drier and therefore more flammable due to the heat of recent summers.
–
Human activity by polluting the atmosphere with carbon dioxide is cited as the main cause of climate change.
–
A number of the world’s leading agencies and scientific organizations were announced last week report “United in Science 2020”, which highlights the growing and irreversible effects of climate change on glaciers, oceans, nature, the economy and human living conditions. In addition, the report documents how the pandemic reduced the ability to monitor these changes through a global observation system.
–
The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is currently at a record high and continues to rise. The last five years are expected to be the warmest in the history of observations, but not for long, as the next five years are projected to be even warmer.
— .
