Is climate change the cause of the California wildfires? | Climate Crisis News

“Pirosen” is upon us. At least, that’s the theory first presented by fire historian Stephen Pyne in a 2015 essay.

Gavin Jones, an ecologist with the United States Forest Service, described the Pyrocene in a 2023 interview with The Explorers Journal as the current era in which humans experienced more fire activity than ever before. The main driver is human activity.

The forest fires currently, demolition in the Los Angeles suburbs in California and beyond has so far claimed at least 11 lives, including more than 30,000 acres of land and more than 10,000 buildings. They are the most destructive wildfires in state history.

As forest fires around the world become more frequent each year, climate scientists are increasingly concerned that climate change will make them worse.

The intense and seemingly unstoppable wildfires that started on Tuesday in several neighborhoods of Los Angeles, California, USA, have killed at least 10 people and destroyed 10,000 houses and structures. About 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares) have burned, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

All hands are on deck to fight #PalisadesFire in Southern California. California is deeply grateful to the brave firefighters and first responders who battled the wildfires.

We will continue to mobilize resources and support local communities responding to this severe weather. pic.twitter.com/JZrYy85e4z

— Governor Newsom (@CAgovernor) January 8, 2025

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a video released Wednesday on X that California is no longer in fire “season.” “It’s year-round in the state of California.”

Pyne, professor emeritus at Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences, agrees. He told Al-Jazeera TV that we now have to be “aware of fire in the age of fire, equivalent to the age of ice.”

Did climate change contribute to the California wildfires?

According to many experts, this is very likely.

Scientists warn that the planet is warming to record levels. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) confirmed on Friday that 2024 is the first full year of global temperature observations. exceeded pre-industrial levels 1.5 degrees Celsius.

C3S said the climate crisis is pushing the world towards temperatures never experienced by modern humans.

According to a report by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), climate change has led to an increase in the frequency, season length and area burned of wildfires.

As a result, Pyne says, global warming is “adding energy to the system, increasing wet and dry spells, extending the fire season, amplifying all the (already powerful) elements that contribute to California’s fire landscape.”

How does climate change cause wildfires in particular?

The exact cause of the California wildfires that started Tuesday in the Palisades area of ​​Los Angeles is unknown and is under investigation.

“But they’re human,” says Pyne. “They can be directly related to people (evil, carelessness) or indirectly (for example, through faulty power lines). Its origin is still unknown.”

Experts say it’s likely that a combination of environmental factors created optimal conditions for unscheduled fires. spreading rapidly as it is.

First, southern California hasn’t seen significant rain in months.

The The latest map from the US Drought Monitor shows that as of January 7, only 39.1 percent of California is completely drought-free. The rest of the state is described as “abnormally dry” and some areas are experiencing “moderate or exceptional” droughts.

Around this time last year — as of January 2, 2024 — 96.7 percent of California was classified as drought-free. In addition, only 3.4 percent of the state was abnormally dry, and no part experienced a drought of any severity.

Excessively dry conditions lead to excessive drying of the vegetation and therefore excessive ignition.

In addition, Los Angeles’ infrastructure contains many other flammable materials, such as low-hanging power cables and wooden telephone poles.

Warm Santa Ana winds also blew inland from the region toward the coast and sea, further drying out vegetation, experts said. When vegetation is very dry and conditions are highly flammable, any spark, whether it’s a burning cigarette butt, car or power line, can start a fire.

Are other natural disasters linked to climate change?

Yes. A changing climate, coupled with poor urban planning and governance, has led to natural disasters on a global scale, incl cyclones, hurricanes and floods.

Scientists at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimate that if the planet’s temperature rises 2C above the pre-industrial average, hurricane wind speeds could increase by 10 percent.

They also say that climate change could slow down the speed, not the speed, at which hurricanes move. This means that storms can dump more water where they pass.

Roxy Mathew Koll, a climatologist at India’s Pune Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said warm oceans help cyclones intensify rapidly. This was reported by Al-Jazeera In April 2023.

World Weather Attribute (WWA) last October he said Climate change caused by fossil fuel use has increased seasonal rainfall in the Niger and Lake Chad basins by between 5 and 20 percent by 2024, leading to more flooding.

Asian countries have also experienced heavy floods in recent years. In April 2024, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) published a report that Asia is warming faster than the global average.

“Many countries in the region experienced the hottest year on record in 2023, with extreme conditions ranging from droughts and heat waves to floods and storms,” ​​World Trade Organization chief Celeste Saulo said in a statement. He added that “the frequency and severity of such events” has been exacerbated by climate change.

Will these events worsen if climate change is not tackled?

According to a 2022 report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and its partner, GRID-Arendal, an environmental communications center, forest fires are expected to worsen over time as a result of climate change and land-use change.

The report predicts that extreme fires worldwide will increase by 14 percent by 2030, by 30 percent by the end of 2050, and by 50 percent by the end of the century.

In addition, wildfires damage the environment in other ways. In terms of the California fires, “when (and if) the winter rains finally arrive, they can cause slope erosion and debris flows,” Pyne said, suggesting that post-fire cleanup “will be messy, lengthy and expensive.”

The conditions created by people have also made it difficult to cope with the consequences of environmental disasters.

“Modern homes are full of plastics, synthetics and electronics that can be toxic when ignited,” Pyne said.

How do wildfires affect wildlife?

Wildfires quickly burn acres of land and can have a variety of effects on the wildlife that live in the wildfire areas.

According to a paper published by North Carolina (NC) State University, impacts depend on the type of wildlife and its habitat requirements, and the intensity and frequency of wildfires.

As the fire quickly covers hectares of land, some species can be saved quickly. “Some animals, especially those that are sedentary or too slow to run, are more sensitive to the smoke and heat of wildfires,” he explains.

Does this affect the environment at all?

It could be. As wildfires alter the vegetation by thinning it, some wildlife may lose their habitat, and the resulting movement of wildlife may disrupt the balance of the local ecosystem in the area.

Take snakes as an example. About 33 snake species are endemic to California.

Michael Starkey, a conservation biologist whose work focuses on snake conservation This was reported by Al-Jazeera rising temperatures and drought make some regions uninhabitable for some snake species.

While some snakes may move away, other species may become extinct, Starkey said. This is a problem because snakes eat rodents that destroy crops for human consumption. This chain reaction can affect entire food systems.

California is also home to about 700 species of vertebrates, which are simply animals with backbones and skeletons. This makes the state the most biodiverse in the United States, according to a March 2024 USDA article.

California’s record-breaking wildfires burned more than 4.2 million hectares in 2020 and 2021.

“Unfortunately, wildfires have killed or displaced an estimated 3 billion animals. It makes me wonder what’s happening to our wildlife,” Jones, a US Forest Service ecologist, was quoted as saying in the USDA article.

John Keane, an ecologist at the Pacific Southwest Research Station, said spotted owls are a particular species of concern, according to the article. “Wildfire disasters can destroy old-growth trees and dense forest patches that spotted owls depend on for nesting, roosting and feeding.”