California wildfires: no longer a norm
Climate change is a huge problem on our planet, and the causes are numerous and deeply complex.
Being from California, I have had direct experience with the numerous California wildfires that is a perfect example of the bad effects of climate change. My mother almost made me cancel my flight to Sacramento for Thanksgiving in 2018 because the air quality broke the scale of 1-500. She was worried about my health because there was so much debris in the air. Everyone was wearing breathing masks, even though they did not help much. The amazing thing about this is we were over an hour away from where the fire actually was. I remember when I landed in Sacramento I immediately got a headache from the bad air, and I was still taxing to the gate. I cannot imagine what others were feeling closer to these various California wildfires.
Scientists explain that the health effects from the wildfires stem from the small particles in the smoke that are breathed in. Exposure to the smoke in healthy people can cause:
Headaches
Irritated eyes, nasal passages, throat and bronchi
Irritated nasal passages
The smoke can worsen the state of unhealthy individuals with chronic obstructive lung diseases, such as asthma. Even so, livescience.com explains that these findings are based on previous fires which are not as severe as the ones occurring in California today. The Mendocino Fire that took place in 2017 burned for about 6 weeks and burned 460,000 acres. Today's fires are causing bigger air quality shifts and exposing Californians to higher smoke levels. It could be that the health effects are worse, but only time will tell.
My roommates family was directly affected by another fire that took place in Santa Rosa, California: the infamous Tubbs Fire of 2017. While my roommate was not home in Santa Rosa at the time, she explains the horror her family went through in my brief interview with her: "they were evacuated for so long... (they) couldn't come back to know if house was okay". Her sister, who was present, added in that once they were back "The air quality was really bad… (it) wasn't safe to be there for long". These fires caused by climate change not only directly effects the environment by destroying more than it can bare, but also destroying family homes and causing various health issues.
Alejandra Boruna explains that fires are a natural part of California's ecosystem and it has evolved to deal with fires. However, these fires have been increasingly common, big, and mean. California has seen a trend of hotter and drier years, and the graphic below from the NOAA illustrates.
Having never lived outside of California, it is important to note that I have only recently heard about these fires on the news. Previous wildfires were not that newsworthy because they were common and expected. Out of the 20 biggest fires in California, 15 have taken place in the past 20 years and is seen on the graph above. This is due to the US state warming by 3 degrees Fahrenheit.
When the planet warms, water is sucked out of plants and soils creating the perfect environment for wildfires. Increasing dry seasons in the state also cause plants to dry out and exacerbates this issue. The increasing winds in California's fall seasons spreads these wildfires even more, which happened in many instances such as the Tubbs Fire.
When the planet warms, water is sucked out of plants and soils creating the perfect environment for wildfires. Increasing dry seasons in the state also cause plants to dry out and exacerbates this issue. The increasing winds in California's fall seasons spreads these wildfires even more, which happened in many instances such as the Tubbs Fire.
An interesting note is that there are not more wildfires than there have been in previous years, but they are bigger and more fierce. Park Williams, Columbia University's fire expert, explains that "..the current fires are probably harder to fight than they would have been in a cooler world".
That right there is reason enough to wake up to the sad reality that our planet is fed up with how we treat it, and has reacted by warming up. Furthermore, we are already suffering the consequences of this reaction, which will be further discussed in this article.
That right there is reason enough to wake up to the sad reality that our planet is fed up with how we treat it, and has reacted by warming up. Furthermore, we are already suffering the consequences of this reaction, which will be further discussed in this article.
