(Sourced from WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)
Wildfires are burning. Since the industrial revolution, the concentration of greenhouse gasses has increased in the atmosphere. The factors of greenhouse gas emissions are both natural and anthropogenic. The natural sources include volcanic emissions and background radiation, whereas burning fossil fuels from vehicles and industries and agricultural activities are man-made sources of greenhouse gasses. Climate Change is driven by increased concentration of these greenhouse gasses - methane, carbon dioxide, water vapors, and oxides of nitrogen and sulfur.
Climate change increases the risk of extreme weather patterns. These include global warming followed by scorching weather, high precipitation, glacier melting, heat waves, and wildfires [1]. Although a single event can’t be attributed to climate change, studies have found that 75% of scorching weather and about 18% of extreme precipitation across the globe is due to climate change [2]. It has become clear that climate change is the main cause of frequent wildfires across the globe. This posting will discuss how climate change causes wildfires. Moreover, the effects of wildfires on regions, countries, individuals, and the environment will be discussed. Lastly, a wildfires management plan will be discussed.Climate Change – Driver Behind Wildfires
Forests cover about 30% of the earth’s ecosystem and provide significant ecological services. Forests house 75% of birds and 68% of mammals and store around 45% of carbon. Overexploitation has affected the forest ecosystem, which exacerbates the phenomenon of climate change. Climate change, in return, affects the forests by increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires [3]. Although there is no direct relation between global climate change and wildfires, there is a positive correlation between warm temperature and wildfires. Anthropogenic human activities cause climate change that results in global warming. The rate of warming has been more than twice per decade since 1980. Since global warming is an effect of climate change, it is characterized by warmer and dry climatic conditions that increase the risk and severity of wildfires . Studies have found out that there is roughly a 2 times increase in probability of wildfires than pre-industrial era [4]. Research conducted in North American Boreal forests show that the forest is burned during the summer months. The GHGs emitted from the forest are one-third of the global emissions from the transportation sector.
Carbon emissions by area burned
(Sourced from Senkowsky, 2001 [5])
Similar emission patterns each year will intensify the global warming phenomenon – where the incoming solar radiations are trapped by gasses in the atmosphere and warm the atmosphere. The average area burned over the past thirty years has doubled. The total amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere has increased from 21 million tons to 53 million tons [5]. What does that carbon dioxide do in the atmosphere? Warming.
Effects of Climate Change
Global forest watch counted more than 4.5 million fires in 2019. Global evaluation from 2003-2012 has found that 67 million hectares of forest land are burnt yearly. The world's average value of burnt forest from 2000 to 2018 was 82.09 million hm2 [2]. Studies make it evident that human-induced climate change shifts the weather pattern affecting biodiversity, crop production, and erratic droughts [6]. Almost every country is prone to the ill effects of climate change. However, the effects are different depending upon the climatic conditions. For example, global warming in Indonesia causes a down in annual rainfall by 2-3 percent. Moreover, the seasons are changing, and new hotspots for wildfires are emerging in Indonesia [7]. Although wildfires have occurred naturally since the dawn of the industrial era, most of them are attributed to climate change. Increasing concentration of Greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere – mostly from industrial and vehicular emissions – trapped the heat radiations and increased the temperature of earth. Increasing temperature leads to global warming that is characterized by hot and dry climatic conditions. Mostly the wildfires occur in these hot and dry summer months. Forests in America I.e., North American forests, are vulnerable to wildfire activity. In the western United States, the area burned by wildfires has doubled [1].
Impacts of Wildfire
Wildfires have a significant impact on infrastructure, economies, humans, and the environment. Since most of these events are caused by the destructive human population, the human populations are most likely to be affected by it.
Impacts on Human Health
The health risk associated with wildfires includes both direct and indirect health impacts. People living around the forest area and the ones who handle fires are directly affected by wildfires. They experience burns, bruises, mental illness, and even death. The Black Saturday wildfires in Australia in 2009 killed about 170 people, 160 people were burnt, and 60 people experienced physical trauma. The property loss and displacement during the event badly affect people's mental health. The results of 20 years follow-up study showed that children who experienced wildfires in their childhood are more likely to experience mental illness in adulthood. Not to speak of direct effects from fire, wildfire smoke also has numerous health impacts. A heavy smoke causes eye irritation and reduces visibility. Furthermore, the significant pollutants during a wildfire - ozone, particulate matter, and carbon monoxide cause respiratory illness [8].
(Sourced from Mansoor et al., 2021 [3])
The health impacts are both short-term and long-term. The increased fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) is dangerous for human health. Particulate matter enters the body through skin pores and nasal cavity and becomes part of the blood, thereby increasing cardiovascular diseases, irreversible asthma, and other respiratory illnesses. Long-term health impacts include reduced lung capacity, lung cancer, and organ damage [9].
Impacts on Environment
Wildfire smoke increases ambient air pollution levels. The primary air pollutants released in the atmosphere include particulate matter, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. Under suitable climatic conditions, they underwent chemical reactions and converted into more toxic secondary pollutants that come down with rain. Acid rain causes water pollution and contaminates Earth's soil, plants, buildings, and biodiversity. Studies have found that wildfires contributed to high ozone level concentration in the atmosphere for 20 years (1997-2006). Particulate matter travels a long distance and deposits on glaciers, thereby increasing the albedo. A dark surface of glaciers absorbs more sunlight, so the phenomenon of glacier melting increases. Some other effects of wildfires are glacier melting, rising sea levels, and severe precipitation [10]. Wildfires are also responsible for the depletion of biomass and fragmentation of ecosystems. This results in loss of biodiversity and loss of genetic variation in population [11].
Wildfire Management
Wildfire management practices are undergoing rapid changes due to technological innovations. Since climate change is an ongoing phenomenon, the best way to deal with wildfires is to mitigate GHGs emissions. Fire early warnings also help a lot in preparing beforehand and staying alert. Building resilient systems is the only way to manage wildfires because wildfires are not something that can be lessened. Changing the lifestyle - substituting fossil fuels with renewable energy, changing agricultural practices, advanced equipment in the industrial sector, and carbon capture and storage - could help to lessen the frequency of wildfires [12].
Conclusion
Forests have a significant ecological and economic value. However, the wildfires have increased in recent decades. Although fires were common in the past, now the human face is the most common cause of fires. Excessive burning of fossil fuels in industries and daily life, agriculture practices, and natural phenomena increase the emissions of GHGs in the atmosphere. It leads to climate change that has increased the number of reported wildfires. Since this is a two-way process, climate change intensified wildfires and vice versa. Human-induced wildfires affect individuals' health and their environment. Fire management can slow down the severity of fires but building resilient systems would be the only sustainable solution to minimize the effects of the wildfires.
[1] U. Shahzad, “Global Warming: Causes, Effects and Solutions,” Aug. 2015.
[12] D. M. Bowman et al., “Forest fire management, climate change, and the risk of catastrophic carbon losses,” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 66–67, 2013, doi: 10.1890/13.WB.005.
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