The Fire Within or Fahrenheit 441

In my previous essays, I have discussed different strategies for reducing pollution, habitat destruction and/or energy consumption.  I have not broached the subject of why it is important for each person to reduce their carbon footprint.  On a personal level, it is good policy, better on the wallet, and creates better health and well-being.   However, on a global scale overuse of resources is causing mass extinctions and warmer weather.  To give a concrete example of a problem caused by warmer weather, I will discuss fire, specifically the California wildfires.  A combination of a warming planet and poor planning caused more than 1.5 million ha to burn from fire in California (3.7% of the state) in 2023 (Thilakaratne, R et al 2023).  This resulted in millions of people being exposed to hazardous air quality and thousands of smoke-related deaths.  Currently, there are wildfires raging in both northern and southern California.

🌲 Fire Adapted Ecosystems 🦌

Fire is nothing new to California and many other western states.  Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, Montana, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, and Washington, have fire-adapted ecosystems (J. Baijnath-Rodino et al. 2020).  This means that the entire ecosystem is dependent on fire.  Numerous plant species have evolved so their seeds are encased in a waxy coating. This coating melts in fire, and then the seeds drop to the ground (J. Herndon and Whiteside M. 2018).  Therefore, without fire, these plants cannot reproduce.  

Fire clears vegetation and returns nutrients to the soil (J. Herndon and Whiteside, 2018).  Then the plants grow back until they become too crowded with dominant species outcompeting everything else.  Then the fire happens again.  Fire is a natural part of these ecosystems (J. Herndon and Whiteside M. 2018).

🔥Fire Suppression 🪵

Beginning in the 1850s, California took Smokey the Bear seriously.  The state actively suppressed fires, while also logging the larger fire-resistant trees, potentially exacerbating the problem (P. Higuera and Abatzolglou 2020).  This caused a buildup of diminutive trees and grasses (P. Higuera and Abatzolglou 2020).  This, in turn, resulted in a buildup of debris that is prone to produce large and severe wildfires(P. Higuera and Abatzolglou 2020).  It was not until the 1960s that scientists figured out that fire was good for the ecosystem.  In 1968 the first prescribed burn occurred on public lands in California (R. Miller 2020).  If California aims to address the deficit in prescribed burns due to past suppression, implementing controlled burns across 5 million acres each year is crucial.   (Balch, J. et al 2018).  

🌱 Problems With Controlling Fire 🌴

 The execution of a controlled burn follows these key steps.  A given area is burned, and sometime later the adjacent area is burned.  These burns help the ecosystem and prevent the buildup of debris.  Firebreaks prevent these burns from spreading (R. Miller et al. 2020).  However, a big problem with fire breaks is that they allow for non-native grasses to make their way into the newly burned area (M. Reilly et al. 2020). Nonnative species of plants are more flammable than native species (M. Reilly et al. 2020). Therefore, simply burning an area every so often is not the entire answer. 

 Good forest management would also reduce the number and abundance of non-native grasses (M. Reilly et al. 2020).  Due to a variety of factors, including the buildup of fuel, in 2020, there were 19,000 fires in just three states:  California, Oregon, and Washington.  In 2018, there were a total of 11,000 fires in all those states combined (D’Evelyn, S et al 2020).

🔥 The Cost of Controlled Fires 🤑

Another problem with controlled burns is that they are not a priority and can be quite expensive.  According to the California carbon plan, the target for the annual burned acreage is 50,000 acres.  In practice, it is about 33,000 acres (Buechi, H. 2021).  Consequently, some people burn their own land but they must accept all responsibility if the fire gets out of control.  This scenario is more likely with hotter temperatures drying out plants and turning them into kindling.  There is a state government group called Cal Fire that conducts prescribed burns.  There is a lot of red tape involved and it can take years for them to commence the burn (Miller, R. et al 2020).  Government involvement in fire management doesn’t guarantee the safety of every home, as fires can behave unpredictably and result in property loss.

As the earth warms, this problem is only going to get worse.  The ecosystems in the west are not adapted to large-scale high severity fires. The problems associated with these types of fires are not limited to the immediate aftermath of loss of life and property.  That is to say, it has long-term effects as well.   The soil under the burned trees and grasses can no longer hold the soil in place (H. Uzun 2020).  Subsequently, it makes its way into the water and may contain herbicides (see War of the Weeds), pesticides, and/or other toxins.  At a minimum, the soil causes the water to contain dissolved organic matter, dissolved organic compounds, dissolved nitrogen, ammonium, and bromide (H. Uzun 2020) .  In the best-case scenario, this causes an increase in turbidity and suspended solids. That is a result of just one chemical found in pesticides

🔌Possible Solutions To The Western Fire Problem🚲

One chemical found in pesticides is Bromine.  It alone can disrupt thyroid function, which increases the risk of premature birth (H. Uzun 2020).  In addition, it can slow neural development in kids and cognitive failure in adults.  Consequently, some communities immediately downstream of large fires have told residents not to have any babies (Rosenthall, D. 2021) .  That is a result of just one chemical found in pesticides.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  California could have more controlled burns, restoration thinning (cutting down smaller trees to decrease fuel load) and remove the non-native species from the ecosystem.  Other measures could include putting power lines underground, so they don’t start or spread a fire. In California alone transmission lines have started fires at least 1,500 times in the last six years (A. Arab et al 2021).   

🌎 Global Warming and The Future of Fire ☀️

However, none of these measures will be effective if our planet keeps warming at its current rate.  The soil will become parched, and some seeds will not be able to become rooted and mature (J. Baijnath-Rodino et al. 2020). Some of the current plants will die and dry out.  This situation makes another uncontrolled, devastating fire inevitable.  Unfortunately, fires don’t just cause disturbances in plant life.  Animals that depend on the plants must figure out how to survive or die.  That is just one of the many consequences of a heating planet.  If we all do our part we can reduce fossil fuel emissions, and we can keep the planet alive for our grandchildren to enjoy.