[Intro]
Wild! (Fire!)
Transpire
Glowing aspire
[Verse 1]
Exhaust won’t tire
It just keeps going higher
Watch the winds blow
Catch it… don’t let it go….
[Chorus]
Wild! (Fire!)
Transpire
Glowing aspire
[Bridge]
Watch it grow
Watch the glow
Wow! Isn’t that wild! (Fire!)
Wildfire
[Verse 2]
No such thing as a
Pollution dilution solution
Just accumulates and exacerbates
At increasing rates
[Chorus]
Wild (fire)
Transpire
Glowing aspire
[Bridge]
Watch it grow
Watch the glow
Wow! Isn’t that wild! (Fire!)
Wildfire
[Chorus]
Wild (fire)
Transpire
Glowing attire
[Bridge]
Watch it grow
Watch the glow
Wow! Isn’t that wild! (Fire!)
Wildfire
[Outro]
Watch it grow higher
Wow! Isn’t that wild! (Fire!)
Wildfire
A SCIENCE NOTE
I asked Sidd, “Are you starting to think wildfires are the most significant threat, or is violent rain still reigning at #1?” Sidd replied, “Well, I never thought I’d see Canada burn. The smoke in the eastern U.S. is currently coming from the Amazon, and Ohio is in severe drought.”
A report by the USDA and the U.S. Forest Service found that the risk of wildfires has been drastically underestimated. The updated model concluded that wildfires pose a high risk to one-third of all U.S. residents and buildings. “We’re more accurately reflecting climate changes that we’ve seen in the last few years,” said Kelly Pohl, associate director at the nonprofit Headwaters Economics, which released the findings with the Forest Service.
A combination of factors creates feedback loops, where more intense and frequent wildfires release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to further climate change. This cycle reinforces the importance of addressing both the causes and consequences of climate change to mitigate the impact on wildfire risk. While the beautiful sunsets during forest fires create captivating visuals, it’s essential to recognize the environmental and health impacts associated with wildfires. Wildfires can cause significant damage to ecosystems, contribute to air pollution, and pose risks to human health. The mesmerizing sunsets are a visible reminder of the interconnectedness of atmospheric processes and the far-reaching effects of natural events like wildfires.
In addition to the carbon feedback loop (the carbon emissions of Canada’s fires outweighed the combined emissions from its oil and gas, transport and agriculture sectors), the fires also cause the melting of the permafrost and zombie fires to burn in the permafrost. The permafrost collapse is a self-sustaining feedback loop/tipping point. As the permafrost melts, the peatlands emit CO2 and methane. The increase in CO2 and methane results in more warming that results in more peatland emissions. A third feedback loop is created with lightning strikes. The study Forests at Risk Due to Lightning Fires found a sensitivity of extratropical intact forests to potential increases in lightning fires, which would have far-reaching consequences for terrestrial carbon storage and biodiversity. The results show that, on a global scale, lightning is the primary ignition source of fires in temperate and boreal forests. Global warming causes more extreme weather events and conditions for lightning creating more forest fires that create more warming and more lightning strikes.
The study Wildfire as a major driver of recent permafrost thaw in boreal peatlands published in the Journal Nature Communications found wildfires have caused a quarter of permafrost thaw (2,000 square kilometres) in Western Canada’s boreal peatlands over the past 30 years. “Historically, permafrost in this area underwent a natural cycle of thawing and reforming, but given current climate conditions and projections for the future, this fire-induced thaw appears to be irreversible,” said Carolyn Gibson, who conducted the research.
On January 1, 2024, the article, Why Are Alaska’s Rivers Turning Orange?, was published in Scientific America. “Streams in Alaska are turning orange with iron and sulfuric acid. Scientists who have studied these rusting rivers agree that the ultimate cause is climate change. Kobuk Valley National Park has warmed by 2.4 degrees Celsius (4.32 degrees Fahrenheit) since 2006 and could get another 10.2 degrees C hotter by 2100, a greater increase than projected for any other national park. The heat may already have begun to thaw 40 percent of the park’s permafrost, the layer of earth just under the topsoil that normally remains frozen year-round. McPhee wanted to protect the Salmon River because humans had ‘not yet begun to change it.’ Now, less than 50 years later, we have done just that. The last great wilderness in America, which by law is supposed to be ‘untrammeled by man,’ is being trammeled from afar by our global emissions.”
NASA reported: Wildland fire experts have described Canada’s 2023 fire season as record-breaking and shocking. Over the course of a fire season that started early and ended late, blazes have burned an estimated 18.4 million hectares. Hundreds of fires exceeded 10,000 hectares (39 square miles), large enough to be considered “megafires.” These megafires were also unusually widespread this season, charring forests from British Columbia and Alberta in the west to Quebec and the Atlantic provinces in the east to the Northwest Territories and the Yukon in the north.
Though the rate of change in climate disasters’ intensity, duration, and likelihood vary according to the type of extreme weather, a “rule-of-thumb” can be derived from the Canada wildfires of 2023. The World Weather Attribution Organization found, “Climate change made the cumulative severity of Quebec’s 2023 fire season to the end of July around 50% more intense, and seasons of this severity at least seven times more likely to occur.”