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For Susan Luten, a retired attorney in Oakland, California, 2020 is starting to feel like a sci-fi dystopia, where she herself is an unwitting participant.
Last week, the sky was red in the middle of the day. She lives in an area affected by the earthquake, but it is not the threat of an earthquake that has led her to have bags full of clothes, duct tape, flashlights and medicines at the door.
“We have ropes at the house so we can go down a steep cliff behind the house instead of escaping by car,” Susan Luten told the New York Times.
These are the wildfires she fears. The unprecedented and unprecedented wildfires that hit the west coast of the United States after years of drought in California. Oregon has not experienced anything like it in modern times.
The worst air in the world
Smoke from all the fires in the past few days has given America’s west coast the worst air in the world. Those who have already been affected by the coronavirus run the risk of being particularly bad in bad air.
At the same time, hurricanes and storms hit the Gulf of Mexico. Phoenix has set new heat records. And Death Valley in California set a new record for the highest temperature on earth in August.
“If you don’t believe in climate change, come to California,” said Gavin Newsom, the state governor.
It was until this week before President Donald Trump visited the state and commented on the fires. He promised it would be colder (true only if he was referring to the approaching winter) and again questioned the science behind the climate threat.
The fires and weather have finally become an electoral issue too, and Trump’s rival Joe Biden has accused the president of being a “climate killer.” Trump can take a beating there, especially among Republican voters who in polls are significantly more concerned about climate change than male Republican voters.
In the eyes of climate scientists, 2020 confirms what they have long warned. And this is just a sample:
“I am convinced that we will look back 10, 20, definitely 50 years, and say, ‘Wow, 2020 was a crazy year, but I miss it,'” said Waleed Abdalati, former NASA chief scientist. AP news agency.
Live close to nature
Warmer weather is certainly a major cause of the many wildfires in recent years. Higher temperatures and prolonged droughts create a drier landscape that burns more and more frequently.
But the fact that more and more people are killed or injured in fires has other causes as well. Today, it is much more common for Americans to settle in the border area between city and nature.
It is possible to build fire protection, just as California has long built earthquake protection, but that development is too slow.
“It’s not until it happens in your backyard that a lot of people react,” Kimiko Barrett, an expert on wildfires, told the New York Times.
One thing that most people agree on. Climate change means that these types of fires will become more common in the future.
But it’s not just the warmer weather that has affected America’s west coast so badly. President Trump has been ridiculed for his speech on forest management, but he’s right.
Priority to extinguish immediately
Wildfires were already a major problem for American settlers, and entire cities caught fire in the 19th century with hundreds of deaths. A fire in Peshtigo, Wisconsin in 1871 claimed more than 1,500 lives.
The US Forest Service decided as early as the 1930s that the top priority was to extinguish a wildfire as soon as it started. They succeeded too well over the years.
Because wildfires are a natural part of nature’s cycle. Forests where there have been no fires at all become dense and explosive once the fire occurs.
This is how controlled fires are carried out to clear vegetation. It is a common method in the southeastern United States, where there is also a lot of forest in some places. Devastating wildfires are not that common there.
“Controlled fires are an important tool in the southeastern United States today,” Crystal Kolden, an expert on wildfires, told the New York Times.
It is much rarer in California. As the Governor of California also admits:
– There is no doubt that we do not deal with forest management as we should have.
It is time to start doing that. Because there will be more.
See more:
Governor of California: “This is a climate emergency”
