Climate Change

The cause of the most recent wildfires in California can be linked to Climate Change, while across the Pacific in Southeast Asia, the recent floods can also be blamed on this. Both of these tragic events have left thousands homeless and dozens killed. To date, the ongoing fires in California have caused the destruction of 4,359,517 acres of property and land throughout the state forcing 90,000 thousand citizens to evacuate. Emergency response has proven complicated due to a historic heatwave alongside the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

According to experts from NASA, the heatwave began in September 2020 in Southern California and is the cause of the fires as it has broken temperature records of heatwaves in history, showing temperatures surpassing 113°F (45°C). Climate change is the primary fault for these increasing temperatures leading directly to the wildfires, heat wave, and even droughts, but humans are also part of the problem. Fire caused by human interference happens 90% of the time according to statistics by the Insurance Information Institute, with examples being campfires left unattended, cigarettes being discarded, and even intentional arson.

The California wildfires affected the wildlife and people's lives and essentially the entire planet. According to You Matter, an international news source focusing on environmental issues, greenhouse gases caused by humans such as burning fossil fuels, cutting down rainforests, farming livestock, and even lighting small fires adds enormous amounts of gases to those naturally occurring in the atmosphere. The resulting “greenhouse effect” then comes into play as the atmosphere of earth traps in heat, either from radiation of the sun or natural chemicals from the earth itself, so the earth’s temperature starts to rise, leading to global warming. This then leads to the Earth's climate changing and ultimately to the large-scale shifts in weather patterns we are seeing around the world.

An example of recent shifts in weather patterns would be with the floods happening in Southeast Asia. At least five floods in different countries have occurred just this year: Jakarta, China, Nepal, Kyushu and India. The NASA observatory claims the floods were caused by heavy rainfall from the monsoon rains that happen from June to September every year. But in 2020 the monsoon had a delayed retreat and caused building collapses and drownings that affected 17.5 million people across Southeast Asia. According to ABC News, nearly 700 people in these regions have died as a result of the floods.

What was the cause of the monsoon overstaying its welcome? The increase of temperature due to global warming may be the cause. According to Morgan Stanley from National Geographic, “As winter ends, warm, moist air from the southwest Indian Ocean blows toward countries like India...monsoon brings a humid climate and torrential rainfall to these areas.” This reveals how the rising temperatures due to global warming have caused the Southwest ocean to stay longer than it should have, causing the monsoon to remain abrupt in Southeast Asia through the summer months.

Climate change is the major cause of these disasters, and if we do not create change as a society in the following years the situation will only escalate. There are many plans to begin reducing greenhouse gases, but the lack of belief in Climate Change by some has caused greater issues and the work being done to be not taken seriously enough. If we do not comply with the Earth’s calling, wildfires and floods will be more common and climate change will cause more problems than before. For the first time in human history, we cannot rely on nature to fix the planet. What we do in the next decade will determine the future for all life on Earth.