Energy for the Environment

Previously on this blog, I have written about climate change affecting water availability, Alaskan rivers, women’s reproductive health, waste pickers– and Alaskan crab and polar bear populations (to name a few). However, I’ve never discussed wildfires. This is surprising because in the past couple decades, global warming has increased the frequency and intensity of wildfires all over. 

I decided to talk about wildfires today in light of the terrible wildfires in Maui and Yellowknife. Sadly, wildfires are nothing new to the West Coast. California especially is infamous for experiencing terrible wildfires amid their past droughts. 

So to begin, let’s discuss some environmental causes of these wildfires. 

• The wind: As seasons and conditions change, the wind usually picks up as fall nears and the dry summer ends. In addition to this natural hike in wind strength, wind caused by Hurricane Dora played a huge role in taking a small spark and igniting it into a blaze that caused widespread destruction in Hawaii. What does this have to do with climate change, you may ask? As climate change causes the ocean water to warm, hurricanes are more easily formed and powerful– and can ratchet wind strength up to a very intense level. 
• The drought: I’ve talked about droughts and water scarcity a lot before because it is such an important issue (water is so essential to survival), but drought doesn’t only affect survival in cases of water scarcity– it is also one of the largest factors that play into wildfires. As precipitation declines in an area, a drought can turn a forest into a tinder box. One of the reasons why Maui was so susceptible to the wildfires is their deficit of rainfall.
• Lack of vegetation management: The fire in Hawaii spread so quickly (and caused so much damage) partly due to the flammable invasive grasses that were not tended to. Abandoned fields containing the grasses were ignored, and this proved to be a grave mistake as the invasive grasses spread quickly. These grasses acted as the gasoline for the fire.

Overall, as climate change continues to affect our world, we need to prepare ourselves better against natural disasters and work to more fully understand the consequences of global warming. 

Sources: 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/08/18/deadlier-fires-increasing-hawaii-california/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/08/10/maui-wildfires-why-weather-climate/?itid=ap_scottdance