On Wildfires and Climate Grief
Opinion News Analysis by Rhea Haddad, Staff Writer
September 23rd, 2020
“Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope, but I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is”, says 17 years old Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg.
How does climate change exhibit itself in 2020?
Records floods. Raging storms. Deadly heats.
Climate change manifests itself in numerous ways and is the ultimate equalizer: a challenge faced by any living creature. Over the last few decades, rising temperatures, shifting cycles of rain and snow, changes in plant communities, and other climate-related changes have significantly increased the likelihood that fires will occur more frequently and spread more intensely and widely than they did in the past.
This year, several countries around the world experienced their worst wildfires in decades, if not of all recorded history. In each case, the contributing factors are different, but the underlying theme runs through the story: hotter and drier seasons, fueled by the combustion of fossil fuels.
At the beginning of the year, Australia was emerging from its worst wildfires on record. Thousands of homes were lost, and millions of acres burned. Estimates of the number of animals killed range between a few hundred million and a billion. Researchers found that human-caused climate change played a significant role in the fires, making the high-risks conditions that led to widespread burning at least 30% more likely than in a world without global warming.
Today, the West Coast of the United States is still deep in the throes of an epic wildfire season, with California officials warning that the record area of 3.4 million acres burned in the state so far this year is likely to keep growing.
In the humid tropic of Indonesia, climatic conditions have a smaller impact on wildfires. There, the primary cause of fires lies in clearing and burning lands for agriculture.
Brazil’s worst fires on the record are burning now in the Pantanal wetlands in the south. Further north, in the Amazon rain forest, tens of thousands of fires are still burning after a summer of blazes. Just like in Indonesia, deforestation is a key culprit. However, climate change is a force multiplier: during droughts, those fires enter more into forests, burning more trees and causing more damages, and go on for a very long period of time.
Today’s fires are both shocking and wholly expected, say many researchers. “That’s the tricky thing about fires – it isn’t one thing that’s causing them, it’s multiple puzzle pieces fitted all together,” says Jennifer Balch, a fire ecologist at the University of Colorado.
With the coronavirus increasing the health threat of wildfire smoke, this year’s fires are putting an unprecedented strain on communities. But scientists say we should expect bigger, more deadly, and more destructive fires like the ones we have seen so far in 2020 in the years to come.
Even the intensity and frequency of these wildfires around the world are showing little sign of moving the needle on climate change with voters or lawmakers, despite increased attention on the issue.
After California’s wildfires, Trump denied the climate change effect, affirming that “It'll start getting cooler. You just watch”. The back-to-back comments from Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and Republican President Donald Trump emphasized the political reality that has kept climate change legislation from passing Congress.
Correspondingly, under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, ranchers, farmers, and miners have been given much freer rein to clear the rich rainforest for commercial activity, and setting fires is a cheap way to do that.
If governments fail to take steps to control greenhouse gases and deforestation, and if all of us do not change our consumption habits, we would be stuck in a vicious cycle where fires will induce more fires.
If you’re uncomfortable breathing in the smoke from a wildfire, weight that against the discomfort of taking a slightly shorter shower each day.
If you have spent extra money protecting yourself from a storm, fire, or virus, compare that amount to a small investment in local products, cleaner energy, or sustainable brands.
If you feel suffocated by your mask, vote for politicians who will stop suffocating chemicals from being pumped into our air.
2020 is not cursed!
2020 is not unlucky!
2020 is climate change. 2020 is the result of our actions!
And climate change doesn’t end in 2020.
Every tragedy this year, including the coronavirus pandemic, has been triggered or worsened by global climate change. Waiting for these situations to vanish at the flip of the calendar will not work. There would be many more years that look like 2020 if we do not change our lifestyle.
You don’t have to do something big but do something different!