Similar to the case in Northern California, investigators believe that Canada’s boreal forest fire was caused by humans.īarack Obama visited Alaska in 2015 to highlight the dangers of climate change, calling up images of the hundreds of wildfires that burned across the state just that summer. ( See how megafires are remaking American forests.) For every degree that our planet warms, the forest needs a 15 percent increase in precipitation to compensate for increased dryness. The filmmakers created the content presented, and the opinions expressed are their own, not those of the National Geographic Society.įires ravaged the boreal forests of Canada’s vast north woods in May 2016 and continued for months, consuming millions of acres of trees, and scorching the rich organic soil on the forest floor, which serves as a large reservoir for carbon. The Short Film Showcase spotlights exceptional short videos created by filmmakers from around the web and selected by National Geographic editors. Production company The Story Group documents the experiences of Whittemore and other firefighters as they weigh the risks of combatting escalating infernos in Colorado. In ecosystems such as boreal forests, which store more carbon than any other terrestrial ecosystem on the planet, the effects of climate change are playing out twice as fast. Wildfires Can Have Long-Lasting Implications for Our Planetįorest fires actually have the ability to heat up the entire planet, a NASA study from 2016 revealed. Otherwise they are learning to let some fires burn themselves out, as nature intended. In some places, the path toward a safer, more ecologically sound relationship with fire is being blazed with prescribed fire, and what’s being called by officials as “managed wildfire.” Fire crews put their efforts to suppress wildfires around the most fire-prone areas, such as communities, municipal watersheds, and sequoia groves. Since the science of forestry first took root in temperate Europe, which is home to a vastly different forest ecosystem than those found in the United States, fire was seen by early U.S. Forest Service suffered from what historian Stephen Pyne calls “pyrophobia,” or the desire to suppress all wildfires (even the good ones). In the first half of the 20th century, the U.S. Read: Sequoias and Historic Stump in Path of California Wildfire Now, sometimes humans intervene in Yosemite National Park to help the process. Sierra Nevada, require heat from fire to regenerate. ( Watch a time-lapse of the beauty and danger of wildfires.) Unfortunately, the suppression of naturally occurring, low-intensity forest fires has actually aided in the ability for high-intensity wildfires to run rampant. Historically, wildfires are actually supposed to be beneficial to certain natural landscapes, clearing underbrush in forests and triggering the release of seeds in some plant species, such as the Jack pine. Since 1975 the number of fires ignited by lightning has increased between two and five percent. Scientists have found that every degree of global warming sets off a 12 percent bump in lightning activity. Four out of five wildfires are started by people, but dry weather, drought, and strong winds can create a recipe for the perfect disaster-which can transform a spark into a weeks- or months-long blaze that consumes tens of thousands of acres.Īnother possible cause of forest fires is lightning. Firefighters refer to it as the fire triangle: fuel, oxygen, and a heat source. Meteorologists aren’t yet able to forecast wildfire outbreaks, but there are three conditions that must be present in order for a wildfire to burn. As of September 27, the fire was only 15% contained. About 1,500 people were under evacuation orders. Hundreds of firefighters battled the 2,000-acre blaze. 27, 2017 - Drivers in Corona, California, had a fiery commute when a brush fire broke out next to the freeway.
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