Save the Earth! In each chapter, this book will have an environmental problem. Please read the chapter How to Use this Book. I know it sounds optional to read, but it has important information.
This book is for people of all ages, but is particularl...
What is the difference between fires and wildfires?
A wildfire is a type of fire. According to the dictionary, wild is: 'living in a state of nature and not ordinarily tame or domesticated.' But some wildfires could be called 'domesticated.'
Because of global warming, places all over the world are suffering from extreme weather conditions. For example, where I live (Washington) there is an extreme drought. It hasn't rained in the past couple weeks. (Yes, and I am talking about Washington. The state that is known for it's rain). All the grass is ugly and yellow... it's heartbreaking to realize that humans have caused that...
Anyway, wildfires thrive in dry places. And now that Washington hasn't had rained in awhile... (I'm not going to finish my sentence just in case I jinx something).
So, a wildfire could be called 'domesticated' because we are creating the perfect house in the dry forests and dehydrated dirt.
But there are also tame fires that are made by humans to burn down as much as possible. What?
Okay. Rewind.
Farmers are trying to burn down the Amazon Rainforest, also known as the 'lungs of the planet' to create more land for the farms. Is this legal?
The President of Brazil allows it. So yes, it is legal. But because it's legal DEFINITELY doesn't make it right.
So much wildlife lives in Brazil. From colorful birds to monkeys with mustaches. Some wildlife lives only in the Amazon.
For some wildlife, there is no way to escape the flames. And once the flames are gone, what next? %10-%20 of the Amazon is already burned down.
Though that might seem like a small portion of the Amazon, keep in mind that the Amazon is huge (over 2 million square miles!). And even if %1 of the Amazon had been burned, then it still has a life changing impact only the animals who live in that %1, because they've lost their home, maybe some of their family's lives... maybe even their life.
Thankfully, some organizations really want to change that. For example, Ecosia. (Visit the chapter Ecosia to learn more). Ecosia is planting trees all over the world, it especially in the Amazon. Reforest in the planet will take time. Unfortunately, killing a tree is way easier than planting them.
Back to fires.
There are a lot of fires, so I want to visually break it down. Here's a graph I made of the I made it by hand on paint 3-D, but then I realized that I could just pull it up digitally in less than 5 minutes).
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But what do the numbers mean? Throwing numbers at someone (graph or no graph), can't make people realize how many wildfires there are. Thankfully, the numbers decreased from the exploding amount in 2006. For example, let's say that 1 house is burned down during every wildfire. This is definitely not true, since a wildfire can burn down more or less than 1 house. In 2019, that would be 50,477 people without a house. That isn't a lot compared to the worlds population, but still, that's quite a lot of people. Wildfires need to stop.
Time to go back to the graphs as well as the average amount of acers burned per fire. Also, if you go onto the website that I used to get this data (scroll down to see the source citation), it notes '*2004 fires and acres do not include state lands for North Carolina.'
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Again, we don't know what the numbers mean. 3,500,000 can mean a lot depending on how you think of it. 3,500,000 people in the world means there is a small number of people. But 3,500,000 gummy bears to eat for desert tonight is a lot.
In this case, it is acres burned by wildfires every year.
But what is an acer?
The average house size (not including your yard) is 0.22 acres. (See source citation). Wildfires each year burn more than 100 times your house size. Even when there wasn't that many acres burned (like in 2010), the amount is still more than 100 times your houses. Even though it would be impossible to stop all wildfires, we can stop some.
By reducing your greenhouse gas emissions - though you might not stopping wildfires directly - will help reduce the number of wildfires. However, note that - as said in the previous paragraph- it's impossible to stop all the wildfires. Why? Well, global warming doesn't cause all the wildfires. Some are just - well you know - wild.
Sometimes it can be really hard to put wildfires out. They're powered by wind, and the wind can blow the fires. Then, the fires could touch a tree, and then claim the tree, burning it down. The wildfires can get really big, and even though you put some parts out, it can just keep growing.
Though this full chapter was about wildfires, I want to note about fires caused by human error. These fires tend to be made by campers. For example, untended fires can be a huge problem for the environment.
Sources Cited (in MLA format):
Total Wildland Fires and Acres (1926-2019). Ed. Total Wildland Fires and Acres (1926-2019). Web. 5 Feb. 2020. <https://www.nifc.gov/fireInfo/fireInfo_stats_totalFires.html>.
McGill, Andrew. The Shrinking of the American Lawn. Web. 1 Jan. 2020. <https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/lawns-census-bigger-homes-smaller-lots/
Hi, everyone! Thanks for reading this chapter. If you want to, you can recommend this book to a family or friend. That way, more people will know about global warming. If you've done that, then thank you for helping spread the word about global warming.
