By Cosette Patterson
California’s wildfire season is only halfway over and this year’s incidents have already broken an all-time record. As of September 7, the National Interagency Fire Center reported 22 large wildfires currently burning across the state. More than 2,178,015 acres have burned across CA this year, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). That’s equivalent to the Boston College main campus multiplied by more than 5,600. Although the fires began with a siege of lightning strikes across Northern California on August 17, more are igniting each day and have spread across the entire state, bringing CA’s fires into the hundreds since the multi-day lightning event. The most recent is the Bobcat Fire in Los Angeles County, which began on September 6. This marked the eighth fire to have begun in the first week of September. 7,563 wildfires in CA have been recorded in 2020, according to the Cal Fire website, though this number continues to increase every day. Eight people have died and 3,867 structures have been damaged or destroyed. As fires spread through the state, more people are finding themselves and their homes in the midst of the crisis. On the weekend of September 5, about 200 people camping in the Sierra National Forest were trapped while trying to flee the flames Saturday night and into Sunday morning. Although a rescue operation by military helicopters finally arrived after about 12 hours, many were forced to find refuge at a reservoir or attempt to drive out of the wall of fire and smoke, according to The New York Times. About 20 people were injured, with some in critical condition from serious burns. The firefighters themselves are risking both the imminent threat of burns as well as the spread of COVID-19. Many have been injured in their desperate attempts to constrain the fires. Another problem remains in the use of inmates who are able to serve as seasonal firefighters. Due to the pandemic, CA granted early release to thousands of prisoners to depopulate crowded facilities and reduce coronavirus cases. Because of this, less than half of CA’s inmate firefighting crews were active for duty this summer, according to an National Public Radio (NPR) article published in late July. Those that are still fighting the fires are not only facing exposure to the coronavirus, but also low pay: according to NPR, inmate firefighters earn between $2.90 and $5.12 per day, plus $1 per hour when assigned to active emergencies. Once released from custody, state law will not let these prisoners become regular, full-time municipal firefighters, despite CA’s shortage of these roles. Dario Gurrola, a seasonal firefighter, is suing the state to change this policy, according to his article in NPR published on August 27. Along with the devastation suffered by the CA population and infrastructure, the fires have also severely affected the state’s natural spaces. CA’s national parks, notably Sierra Nevada and Yosemite, are among the most vulnerable areas. The Creek Fire, beginning in Fresno County on September 4, has been moving northward toward Madera County and Yosemite. As of September 6, it has burned 78,790 acres and is at zero containment, according to Cal Fire. Surrounding the horrific, immediate impacts of the wildfires is the looming connection between the sheer magnitude of these incidents and the broader issue of climate change. Southern California alone has warmed by three degrees over the last century, according to a 2016 study by the EPA. The warming climate due to anthropogenic activities has contributed to more frequent and severe wildfires in the western U.S., as found in CA’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment Statewide Summary Report from 2018. CA is only one of the 13 states currently reporting large wildfires listed by the National Interagency Fire Center, totaling 76 large active fires and 2,295,211 acres burned. Montana has the second most with 11 fires, followed by Arizona with eight and Colorado, Oregon, and Idaho, which each have six. Increasing temperatures in CA have caused extreme and prolonged drought, making the landscape more susceptible to wildfires caused by lightning strikes. Climate change is also reducing the fraction of precipitation falling as snow and causing whatever is being stored to melt. Runoff from snowmelt contributes about 70 percent of total water supply in the Colorado River Basin, which supplies approximately 55 percent of Southern California’s water. The rapid growth of the state’s population and land use as well as the development outward into wild spaces is also contributing to a higher probability of wildfires. Climate change may mean that wildfires will occur at higher elevations, which has already been seen in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Findings from the report referenced above indicate that high emissions scenarios could mean a 77 percent increase in mean area burned by the end of the century, with extreme wildfires (burning over 25,000 acres) occurring 50 percent more frequently. Although predicting wildfires is complex and the science behind it is not certain, the effects of climate change are already evident in CA and wildfires are some of the most alarming. More real-time updates can be found on the California Wildfires Map provided by the Los Angeles Times.
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By Hannah Murphy
The Arctic experienced a record breaking heat wave this summer, with one Siberian town reaching a staggering reported 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit in June. The high temperatures have triggered rapid permafrost thawing, massive wildfires, and accelerated sea ice deterioration. “The Arctic is heating more than twice as fast as the global average, impacting local populations and ecosystems with global repercussions,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalals. “What happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic. Because of teleconnections, the pole influences weather and climate conditions in lower latitudes where hundreds of millions of people live.” Scientists from the World Weather Attribution project have confirmed that the heat wave would not be possible without human-caused climate change, with it being 600 times more likely as a result. Also concerning is the duration of time that Siberia in particular is experiencing record temperatures. Since December 2019, temperatures have been around 9 degrees Fahrenheit above average due to a high pressure system being trapped over the region. While it is not uncommon for such a system to remain in place for a period, it is unusual for it to remain for so long. The record heat has led to increased dryness, resulting in massive wildfires. While wildfires are not uncommon in the Arctic, fires this year produced 244 megatonnes of carbon, an increase of more than a third of last year’s record 181 megatonnes. In perspective, the fires of the past two years have emitted more carbon dioxide than the previous 16 years combined. These wildfires have torn through millions of acres of mostly grassland and peat, causing high levels of carbon to be emitted as a result. Currently 1,400 gigatons of carbon are frozen in permafrost, compared to the 850 gigatons present in the atmosphere. As the permafrost continues to thaw rapidly due to a combination of higher temperatures and devastating wildfires, more carbon is released into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide and methane. The thawing permafrost has not yet been a significant contributor to climate change since the warmer temperatures have caused a longer growing season, allowing Arctic plants to absorb the carbon emitted from the permafrost. Once the Arctic can no longer absorb what it emits, however, it will transform from being a carbon sink to a carbon source. Once this threshold has passed, it cannot be reversed. The thawing permafrost has also caused the Siberian landscape to become highly unstable and has posed a major threat to existing infrastructure. In one example, an oil tank in Norilsk, Siberia burst this past May after the ground it was situated on shifted due to the thawing permafrost. The resulting spill caused 21,000 tons of diesel to leak into Siberia’s Ambarnaya River. The record heat wave and wildfires have also impacted Arctic sea ice. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, as of July the extent of Arctic sea ice had fallen 846,000 square miles below the 1981 to 2010 average. By July 20 the Northern Sea Route had completely open waters, allowing for a sharp increase in ships able to travel the route without the need for icebreakers. These open waters are thought to be correlated with the Siberian heatwave. Russian officials hope to capitalize on the expanded ice-free window for the route, as earlier melting becomes the new normal. |
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