Wildfires and Climate Change

Climate change is causing snow to melt earlier causing crops and forests to dry out that easily act as wildfire fuel with the lack of moisture. Greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to these warmer temperatures, further positively reinforcing wildfires. Climate change has also led to differences in weather allowing different species such as the mountain pine beetle to become invasive and prey on trees leading to more dead trees in the forest to be used as fuel. Not only are wildfires causing smog in the air that is unhealthy for us to breathe in, but it is also destroying our natural ecosystems and species leading to imbalances in all sorts of ways.

I imagine a world where the air isn't constantly polluted with smog from wildfires and we can all breathe fresh air.

I value the right to breathing fresh air and keeping our natural ecosystems safe from the destruction of wildfires and poor air quality.

I think this is another example of a complex system where it would take many interventions to be able to improve this problem. Wildfires are heavily influenced by climate change, so we need to tackle the issues of climate change along with it. I actually did a project proposal once along with a few other students on how to combat wildfires and we suggested using biodegradable water-retaining polymers in the soil to preserve the moisture in forests in preventing vegetation from drying up and becoming fuel for wildfires. These polymers absorb water during the wet seasons and break apart during hot season to replenish the water into the soil for the plants. We wanted to focus on finding natural biodegradable ones such as orange peels that we read about in one article that weren't harmful for the environment. We could fundraise for some further research into this method as well as into research for more natural and sustainable ways to preserve/protect our natural ecosystems from wildfires. As for the issues surrounding greenhouse gas emissions and invasive species, I think those could be brought to attention by the government with placing limits on the emissions and the use of biological control agents to handle invasive species in a more natural way without the use of pesticides which would just harm our environment further. Those are just some of the interventions I had in mind, and the possibilities are endless and I hope one day we could all have clean air and not have to worry about wildfires!

#UnleashValues !!!