Cause and Effect of the SoCal Wildfires

October 29th, 2007 Alex

So how does the wildfires last week of Southern California relate to global warming?

This is actually a pretty interesting topic as scientists have actually contributed the increase of wildfires to global warming. According to this article in TheDailyGreen, “There were four times as many major wildfires between 1986 and 2004 as there were from 1970 to 1986, and a six-fold increase in the area of forest burned in the Western United States. ” Global warming did NOT cause the wildfires to happen, but it is not helping either. The wildfires put plenty of carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases in the air along with destroying plenty of trees that would normally be helping our environment. Since temperatures have increased recently, snow in the mountains melt earlier and streams and rivers have decreased waterflow. Humidity will also drop as a result. This will then cause our ground and grass to be more dry and humid, which would lead to easier wildfires to happen. It can be another good sign to let people be aware that global warming can affect people in ways that people would not suspect. There will also be a lot of home rebuilding as a result of the loss homes and it might be a good idea to build green and be environmentally friendly.

Entry Filed under: Environment