A mass mobilization effort is needed to combat the devastating impacts of global warming and its associated devastating consequences, including worsening and intensifying wildfires. Today, climate change is being felt through a multitude of environmental challenges, including increased frequency and intensity of wildfires. The global trend of fire intensity is rising at an alarming rate and is being exacerbated by climate change.Warming conditions as a result of climate change cause longer fire seasons, making forests drier and more prone to large, intense wildfires. On one hand, higher temperatures, lower humidity, and bigger lightning storms all lead to more fires. For example, in the western U.S., fire season is 75 days longer now than it was in the 1970s and the destructive 2020 California wildfires were largely the result of the ‘perfect storm’ of climate change and its associated conditions, including a hotter and drier climate and a five-year drought.
A number of factors directly related to climate change are responsible for the severity and intensity of these wildfires. Warmer temperatures resulting from climate change cause drier soils, dead and drought-stricken forests, and make forests and vegetation more prone to burning. In general, when air temperatures increase, plants require more water to survive, leading to even hotter, drier conditions and longer dry spells. This increased stress on plants can lead to increased amounts of dead vegetation, which serves as fuel for fires, creating an ideal environment for wildfires to start and spread.
Higher temperatures also reduce a forest’s ability to resist and contain fires. The forest simply experiences more burning during hotter weather, and potentially more ignitions from lightened caused by climate change. Additionally, recent research has demonstrated that the locations and patterns of our planet’s regions with the resources to fuel fires increase with increasing global temperatures. This suggests that climate change can influence the distribution of fires and their intensity over large scales.
Moreover, prolonged droughts induced by climate change are also responsible for making trees and plants that survive the wet season much more likely to succumb to fires as they age and dry. In many parts of the world, drought is becoming a common problem, and even normal conditions are warmer and drier than they used to be. Once a forest is dry and parched enough, it becomes easier to ignite and more difficult to extinguish.
Extreme and unusual weather patterns associated with global warming have a direct effect on climate-related events related to wildfires. A warmer atmosphere is able to hold more water vapor and energy, allowing for larger and more powerful storms. Higher and increased wind can fan fires faster, enabling them to spread more easily, grow larger more quickly and remain more intense. Wind can also disperse sparks and flames from a fire, planting fire lines in different directions and spreading a fire farther.
The devastating impacts of global warming go far beyond fires, but the issue of worsening wildfires is an urgent one. The necessity of curbing emissions and mitigating Global Warming has become more pressing in an effort to reduce its environmental impacts. Take the practical steps required to bring down emissions and take on global warming. We all have a responsibility to do our part in tackling this crucial challenge.
