Climate change is real, forest fires are a fallout

Flames are racing up and down the hillsides of Northern California as America grapples with wildfires. As many as 25 people have died and 300,000 have been evacuated in the most destructive fires in the state’s history. Malibu, a beachside community which is home to Hollywood celebrities, is just charred earth as far as the eye can see. Paradise, a city that was just that, now looks like a war zone. A combination of warm conditions and strong winds are fanning the Camp Fire, Woolsey Fire and Hill Fire with low humidity exacerbating the situation. What used to be rural fires have now turned into urban nightmares. But why? Because, the urban sprawl is continuing to push housing deeper into rural areas. The state’s wildlife urban interface — the area where human building meets or intermingles with undeveloped natural land — grew 20 per cent from 1990 to 2010. And when large fires ‘crown’ — spread from treetop to treetop — they spread as quickly in a vegetation-rich residential neighbourhood as in the woods.

California, known for frequent wildfires, saw its hottest months in July with record levels of dryness. Higher temperatures cause soils to be drier, resulting in drought. If global warming emissions continue unabated and temperatures rise, damage from California wildfires could increase multifold with home encroachments on the lap of nature being as lethal as it is lovely. As fires get bigger and bolder, so are floods, tsunami and earthquakes. It’s time the world took concrete steps to arrest this. Concerted effort — by the states and the people — is the need of the hour. The US President Donald Trump has cited mismanagement as cause for aggravation of the situation. Mismanagement yes — but not so much by the forest authorities as the world as a whole, including Trump — by not taking action to contain global warming. It is we, the people, who have brought natural disasters closer to us, and it is up to us now to find ways to keep them at arm’s length.