Effects of Forest Fires on Global Warming

Effects of Forest Fires on Global Warming

 

 

Forest fire is a common problem globally, and once the incident occurs, it can be nearly impossible to contain. Castillo et al. (2019) and Congressional Research Services (2021) suggest that more than 64100 wildfires have burned and destroyed over 6.8 million acres of natural habitat and land annually in the past decade. The Bolivia forest fires in 2010 burned approximately 3.7 million acres, and the Northwest Territories fire that happened in 2014 burned approximately 8.6 million. The Russian wildfires in 2015 burned approximately 2.7, and the British Columbia wildfire that took place in2017 burned approximately 3 million acres (Congressional Research Service, 2021). The British wildfire in 2018 further burned approximately 3.3 million acres. The Australian bushfire season in 2019 and 2020 was one of the most severe wildfires globally that burned and destroyed approximately 16 million acres.

Additionally, other wildfire cases such as the Siberia wildfire, Alberta wildfire, and Amazon rainforest wildfire in 2019 burned approximately 7.4, 2.1, and 2.2 million acres, respectively. Based on these statistics, the forest fire cases are in upward trends, which is alarming since the consequence is significantly massive. Besides destroying nature habits, forest fire also destroys buildings and farmland and sometimes leads to death. Congressional Reservice (2021) and Insurance Information Institute (2021) reveal that the California wildfire in 2018 destroyed more than 22751 buildings, and the Western US wildfire that took place in 2020 destroyed over 4000 buildings. This is just one of the few consequences that result from wild or forest fires. Congressional Reservice (2021) and Insurance Information Institute (2021) suggest that forest fire can cause pollution, disrupt transportation, and disrupt communication and water supply. Congressional Reservice (2021) and Insurance Information Institute (2021) suggest that forest fires contribute to global warming. This study focuses on examining the most recent trends of forest fire and global warming from 2018 to 2022 to evaluate whether an increase in a forest fires is directly proportional to global warming. This study will help identify the relation and better understand the relationship between forest fires and global warming