California Wildfires

Many people believe that the underlying cause of these fires is climate change but there are other factors that play a role in this devastation. Downed power lines can be blamed for wildfires in previous years as the smallest spark can give way to a whole sea of flames. Counterintuitively, we can think that stopping the fires in previous years gave rise to new plants and wildlife. This just gives fires more to burn when they return the following year. The government is looking at controlled burns to minimize the severity of fires in the next wildfire season. Controlled burns are fires intentionally started to preserve future ecosystems and recycle nutrients.

As of right now, about twenty percent of the fires have been contained with the worst yet to come this fall. Strong winds known as Santa Ana bring strong gusts in the fall which will only make the wildfires worse. Governor Newsom has already declared a state of emergency in California and ordered evacuations in desert communities as the season gets worse. The air pollution caused by the smoke of these fires is also a general area of concern in the long term. Wildfires produce a long range of harmful pollutants that can cause cancer and make existing health concerns worse. All we can do as of now is rely on our firefighters to contain a bigger portion of the fires and hope for people to evacuate on time.