Written By: Unnathi Kumar
Edited By: Vedika Mandapati
Designed by: Samar Khan and Aradhya Poddar
The reports of the 2020 California Wildfires since August of this year have been petrifying, to say the least: colossal wildfires devastating more than 4100 structures, enormous choking smoke clouds, eerie orange skies, record-breaking low levels of air quality, tens of thousands of people being made to evacuate, more than 2.8 million acres of land destroyed (10 times bigger than New York City). The statistics of the 2020 Fire Season are worse than that of the last season of horror in 2018, with the most acres burned in California this year itself, beating an all-time record of 1.6 million acres.
While approximately 11 000 of this year’s conflagrations were ignited by lightning, experts believe that the situation is only getting deadlier amidst the climate debate. California’s hot summers and periods of low rainfall result in dried vegetation, which can kindle fires. With increasing temperatures due to global warming, the situation is and will only continue to get worse. Furthermore, as global warming disrupts traditional weather patterns as well, an increase in rainfall causes rapid growth of plants, but the subsequent heat dries them out and makes them ready to burn thereafter. This thus explains why the wildfires have been getting worse and that they’re only going to get deadlier.
If the wildfires were to continue in a similar fashion, the impact on the economy, environment, and health would be immense and it is thus extremely important for one to reflect and understand what this potential impact could be.
Firstly, the most obvious economic impact of wildfires stems from the costs of damage to property and land, which was around $24 billion in 2018, and will likely be even higher in 2020 because even more land has been damaged this time around. However, the economic impact is even more far-reaching; with present-day markets failing to factor in disasters proliferated by climate change like wildfires, assets are being put at risk and disruption or impairment of all or part of the financial system may be a close reality.
With the environment, wildfires create a closed loop of sorts: their impact is being multiplied due to climate change, but they feed global warming too by emitting carbon dioxide. The particles and gases from the wildfires can also be carried over long distances, degrading the air quality all around (in Mendocino County, for example, wildfires have made breathing the air like smoking 12 cigarettes a day). This is especially detrimental to the safety of those with pre-existing conditions like COPD and asthma, so much so that observational studies have reported increased emergency room visits and hospitalisation during wildfires in those with pre-existing respiratory conditions. The unburned plant material can also interact with metal elements from other sources, increasing their toxicity which can lead to more inflammation or neurological problems.
Therefore, while it is extremely important to prevent wildfires keeping in mind that their scale can have increased negative impacts on the economy, health, and environment due to climate change, one should also know that wildfire season is far from over. At its current scale, mitigation and further prevention seems to be the best resort, for which one can begin with reducing our own impact on the climate.
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