Unprecedented Wildfires
Caused by Climate Change
The official Twitter account of United Nations Climate Change wrote in early July 2021 had predicted that climate change would result in floods in certain parts of the world and heat waves, drought and wildfires linked to rising temperatures in others, “From unprecedented fires in Western North America to devastating floods in Europe: The most recent and accelerating climate change impacts constitute a clarion call to action.” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/world-floods-climate/)
As predicted, fires are now occurring more frequently and severely in ecosystems that have historically rarely experienced fire. In 2019, wildfires raged across large areas of Canada, Siberia, the Mediterranean, and the Amazon. These brought into focus the devastating power and potential threat of fire across the world. An increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires, especially in ecosystems that are not adapted to fire, could lead to lasting changes in vegetation structure and composition, wildlife populations, soil erosion and the benefits humans derive from these landscapes.
The Amazon saw a significant uptick in the number of fires across Brazil, Bolivia and Peru (with ~9000 km2 burnt) in 2019 due to human-driven deforestation, logging and exploitation. This in itself is a cause for concern as there are fears that the interaction of deforestation, widespread use of fire for clearing and climate change are pushing this normally wet tropical ecosystem closer to an ecological tipping point, towards a degraded low-carbon savannah system10. This is important for global sustainability as the Amazon forest is the world’s largest carbon sink, but whose capture and storage of carbon dioxide has been decreasing over the past decades.
As predicted by scientists global warming will lead
to floods at some places and rising temperatures
leading to fires in others. As predicted the world
is witnessing forest fires in historically rare places
like Canada and Siberia. Everything is on fire.
This is happening across the globe on a
daily basis.
As per the Moscow Times, a warming climate combined with a 150-year drought and high winds created the best conditions to turn the taiga forest into fire fuel. This prediction has also come true. Fires are prevalent now even in the coldest places like in Yakutsk, Siberia. Temperatures over the year range between –44 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit in Yakutsk. This past summer, after arid and extremely hot weather patterns, the Saka-Yakutia region reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit, setting records for several consecutive days, per the Associated Press.
It is reported that “A heatwave in one of the world’s coldest regions has sparked forest fires and threatened the Siberian city of Yakutsk.” (Jonathan Watts, The Guardian, 20, July 2021) He states, ‘Everything is on fire’: Siberia hit by unprecedented burning.” A teacher from Yakutsk was also reported to have told ABS News, “Everywhere is burning, and there aren’t enough people.” These fires are leading to an “airpocalypse” of thick toxic smoke, which is one of world’s worst ever air pollution events in the Yakutsk region.
As of August 16, 2021 more than 40 million acres (17 million hectres) have burned, breaking a previous record. … One fire alone scorched an area as wide as 2.5 million acres, reports Ann M. Simmons for the Wall Street Journal. The fires are burning so intensely that vast swaths of smoke blocked sunlight. For the first time in recorded history, smoke from the fires in Siberia have drifted thousands of miles away to reach the North Pole, reports Oliver Carrol for the Independent.
A concerned citizen, Edward Woods, wrote, “This is happening across the globe on a daily basis.” It is time we wake up and take note of these devastating effects of climate change.
