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Wildfires in California – A bleak look into the future?

Author: Andre Wolf

Article image by Peter J. Wilsonk / Shutterstock.com
Article image by Peter J. Wilsonk / Shutterstock.com

Two major natural fires dominated the media landscape this year. On the one hand, the fires in the Amazon rainforest, which are probably the most lasting natural disaster in recent decades, and the ongoing forest fires in California, which repeat themselves every year and get worse.

It rightly raises the question of why the world only focuses on forest fires in California when Thomas Gottschalk or Arnold Schwarzenegger have to leave their luxury villas due to the risk of fire, but that is at least something that is made clear to the average resident of Central Europe, as ours are not distant future could look like.

The fact that the forest fires are increasing in intensity every year is proven by a quick look at the statistics, which say that the 10 largest forest fires took place after the year 2000, the two leaders in 2017 and 2018, with 85 people dying last year and almost 19,000 buildings were destroyed by the flames. The small American town of Paradise was completely destroyed. Property damage is estimated at $24 billion.

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On the one hand, the causes of forest fires can be found in human errors; strong winds can cause sparks from power lines to fall onto the dry ground and start fires there; on the other hand, discarded cigarette butts and burst car tires are also often the cause of fires.

Much more important than the direct trigger, however, is the underlying cause of the fires, namely the increasing dryness of the forests.
Climate change, which causes weather extremes - in the case of California, long periods of drought in which there is sometimes no rain at all - and rising temperatures have a fatal effect when man-made fires are added.

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If you follow the average temperature in the US state, it has risen by 1.8 degrees since 1896.
The side effect of this increase is the reduction in air humidity, which in turn promotes the spread of fires within the forests and the ignitability of the trees. The area destroyed annually by forest fires, including nature and human habitat, has increased by more than 400 percent since 1972.

The living conditions for people in forest fire regions are becoming increasingly critical. California authorities are increasingly turning off electricity as a precautionary measure to prevent further fires; Three million people currently have no electricity, there is a curfew for children in the affected areas, and schools and public buildings are closed.

Forest fires: a scenario for Europe?

If you want to imagine the consequences of climate change in the near future, you have to look at the sunny US state.
The scenario is also conceivable in Europe.

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According to the official EU Earth observation program Copernicus Service, there were already 480 forest fires in Europe in 2019 by March. Compared to the years 2008 to 2018, this number was only reached in mid-August. Eastern Europe in particular (Romania, Croatia) is struggling with increasing forest fires, which cause enormous damage to property and are facilitated by rising temperatures and drought.

Anyone who thinks of the 2004 feature film “The Day After Tomorrow” by Roland Emmerich when it comes to the climate catastrophe and rightly smiles because the film depicts the climate catastrophe in a completely exaggerated way, should be told that the climate catastrophe does not result in a spontaneous freezing of cities takes place, but gradually spreads into areas of life and everyday life. The greatest danger is that the associated restrictions, such as regular power outages or curfews, are perceived as normal and the seriousness of the situation is not assessed correctly or at all for a long time.

The forest fires will continue to hit California in 2020, and the question is how long the area will remain habitable for people.

References

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Author: Alexander Herberstein, article image by Peter J. Wilson k / Shutterstock.com

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Notes:

1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication
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The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual articles (not fact checks) were created using machine help and
were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )


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