Forest Fires
Dry forests are areas of high risk that catch fire and cause major economic
costs, atmospheric air pollution and loss of life. Animals and humans are
vulnerable. Abatzoglou and Williams Stated:” Increased forest fire activity
across the western United States ( and Canada) in recent decades has contributed
to widespread forest mortality, carbon emissions, periods of degraded air
quality, and substantial fire suppression expenditures. Although numerous
factors aided the recent rise in fire activity, observed warming and drying have
significantly increased fire-season fuel aridity, fostering a more favorable
fire environment across forested systems. We demonstrate that human-caused
climate change caused over half of the documented increases in
the 1970s and doubled the cumulative forest fire area since 1984. This analysis
suggests that anthropogenic climate change will continue to chronically enhance
the potential for western forest fire activity. “[i]
Extensive fires in countries such as Indonesia can interfere with weather and
ocean currents. Smoke plumes can be seen in satellite photographs extending
thousand of kilometers.
Lightning Storms
A new NASA-funded study found
that lightning storms were the main driver of
recent massive fire years in Alaska and northern Canada, and that these storms
are likely to move farther north with climate warming, potentially altering
northern landscapes. The team found increases of between two and five
percent a year in the number of lightning-ignited fires since 1975. Higher
atmospheric temperatures create more thunderstorms.
Fires are creeping farther north, near the transition from boreal forests to Arctic tundra.
In high-latitude ecosystems, permafrost soils store large amounts of carbon that
become vulnerable after fires pass through."Exposed mineral soils after tundra
fires also provide favorable seedbeds for trees migrating north under a warmer
climate." A complex feedback loop between climate, lightning, fires, carbon and
forests that may quickly alter northern landscapes.[ii]
Increasing Fires from Global Warming
There are important difference between natural fires that are limited in
scope and duration and the massive, destructive fires that are
now more frequent occurrences. Abnormal fires are often caused by human carelessness or
involve human changes to the environment.
According to Natural Resources Canada:” Wildland fires present a challenge for forest management because they
have the potential to be at once harmful and beneficial.
Wildland fires can threaten communities and destroy vast amounts of timber resources, resulting
in costly losses. On the other hand, wildland fires are a natural part of the
forest ecosystem and important in many parts of Canada for maintaining the
health and diversity of the forest. In this way, prescribed fires offer a
valuable resource management tool for enhancing ecological conditions and
eliminating excessive fuel build-up. Not all wildland fires should (or can) be
controlled. Forest agencies work to harness the force of natural fire to take
advantage of its ecological benefits while at the same time limiting its
potential damage and costs. This makes fire control strategies a vital component
of forest management and emergency management in Canada.”[iv]Canada has 9% of the world’s forests. In 2015, the total forest
burned in Canada, 2015 is 3,004,848 hectares. That’s
a larger area than the island of Sicily, Italy. And in 2014, which was the worst fire season since
2007, 123,986 hectares burned, the equivalent of burning the entire country of
Switzerland. Fighting fires across areas larger than small countries is a
collaborative effort. Firefighters from across the country and even from the
United States have pitched in to help combat the active fire season.
Dangerous, costly, abnormal fires are exemplified by the Fort McMurray
Fire. On May 1, 2016, a wildfire began southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta,
Canada. On May 3, it swept through the community, destroying approximately 2,400
homes and buildings and forcing the largest wildfire evacuation in Albertan
history. It continued to spread across northern Alberta and into Saskatchewan,
consuming forested areas and impacting Athabasca oil sands operations. The fire
spread across approximately 590,000 hectares (1,500,000 acres) before it was
declared to be under control on July 5, 2016. It is the costliest disaster in
Canadian history. An official cause of the fire has not been determined to date,
but it is suspected to be human caused, starting in a remote area 15 kilometers
(9.3mi) from Fort McMurray. Cost estimates based on insurance payouts
reached $4.7 billion (CAD).In July 2017 a massive outbreak of fires in
British Columbia sent about 43,000 citizens out of their homes and into
shelters.
There were more than 67,000 wildfires across the United States in 2016. The
fires burned over 5.5 million acres. In 2015, when severe drought in the
West created conditions favorable to conditions, over 10 million acres burned.
The National Interagency Fire Center, a group of connected federal agencies
monitor wildfires in every state. While fires can and do occur anywhere there
are trees, they are more common and destructive in some parts of the country,
particularly in sparsely populated states. In Alaska, more than 12 million acres
have burned over the last 10 years, more than the total burned acreage in 38
other states combined. The 6.9 million acres burned in Idaho due to wildfires
from 2007 through 2016 is equal to about 13% of the total landmass of the state.
[v]
Wildfires blazing across Northern California in September 2017 produced the
same amount of air pollution as vehicles did in the state in one year, according
to Sean Raffuse, an air-quality analyst at the Crocker Nuclear Laboratory at the
University of California, Davis. Raffuse said that the wildfires burning
in Napa, Sonoma and Solano counties have released more than 10,000 tons of PM
2.5. [vi]
Dello wrote:” Neighborhoods burned this week
in northern California, with more than 30 people reported dead and 2,000
buildings destroyed. Downtown San Francisco is hazy with smoke from wildfires
covering 465 square kilometers, more than 30 kilometers north of the Golden Gate
Bridge. In December 2017 multiple wildfires burned near and in Los Angeles and
other parts of Southern California, forcing thousands to evacuate. The strong
winds that are driving the fires are a normal feature of late fall and winter in
Southern California. What is different this year is the amount of bone-dry
vegetation that is ready to burn. The situation in Southern California is
similar to what occurred in Northern California in October, when high, hot winds
fueled fires that killed 40 people and destroyed thousands of homes. But while
Northern California has since had a lot of rain that has essentially eliminated
the fire threat, the south has remained dry.[vii]
Thousands of small forest fires have burned across the islands of Sumatra and
Borneo, the habitats for orangutans and other rare species. Indonesia’s fires
are much worse than California’s. They are deliberately set and many of them
occur in carbon-rich peat forests. These forests—which would normally be wet and
hard to burn grow out of several meters’ worth of damp, rich organic matter
instead of soil. The peat forests can become so dry, one match or a cigarette
would let it all go up in flames. This releases more carbon than normal forest
fires, and makes the fires hard to control. Even if things look fine, there
are actually fires burning 20 feet below the ground The fires threaten more than
just Indonesia’s wildlife. They have also created a cloud of smoke and haze big
enough to be seen from space and are releasing an estimated 15 to 20 million
tons of carbon dioxide per day—more than the emissions from the entire U.S.
economy. [vi]
[i]
John T. Abatzogloua and A. Park Williams Impact of anthropogenic climate change
on wildfire across western US forests. PNAS October 18, 2016 vol. 113
[ii] Sander Veraverbeke ae al. Lightning sparking more
boreal forest fires NASA global climate change. June 2017
[iii] Wild Nature Institute. Snag Forest Habitat
Protection. Accessed Online Dec. 2016. http://www.wildnatureinstitute.org/snag-forest.html?w
[iv] Natural Resources Canada . Forest Fires.
Accessed online Dec. 2016. http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/forests/fire-insects-disturbances/fire/13143
[v] Michael Sauter. States Where Wildfires Caused
the Most Damage. 24/7 Wall St. May 10 2017.
[vi] Take
Part. Indonesia Burns accessed online Feb 2017 http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/10/22/orangutans-are-dying-indonesia-burns
