Deforestation is a serious challenge for the whole world
Forests cover about 30% of the planet’s land mass but humans are cutting them down, clearing these essential habitats on a massive scale. Intentional clearing of forests is one thing (not recommended, for sure) but deforestation likewise includes a major problem whose causes are mostly natural and accidental.
Wild fires is a major issue
When we talk of forest fires, the case of the Amazon rainforest is the top issue. Simply put, as Justine Calma on The Verge (28-August-2019) stated, “Everyone on the planet benefits from the health of the Amazon. As its trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, the Amazon plays a huge role in pulling planet-warming greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. Without it, climate change speeds up. But as the world’s largest rainforest is eaten away by logging, mining, and agri-business, it may not be able to provide the same buffer.”
Calma said this because that month more than 80,000 fires raged in the Amazon Basin.
Furthermore, the Amazon is crucial to the world’s climatic condition. Calma explains it this way: “Scientists warn that the rainforest could reach a tipping point, turning into something more like a savanna when it can no longer sustain itself as a rainforest. That would mean it’s not able to soak up nearly as much carbon as it does now. And if the Amazon as we know it dies, it wouldn’t go quietly. As the trees and plants perish, they would release billions of tons of carbon that has been stored for decades — making it nearly impossible to escape a climate catastrophe.”
Two neighboring countries south of the Philippines have seen lots of problems with nature in the past several years. Directly south is Indonesia, that had last year and a few other years before seen the destruction of hundreds of thousands of hectares of forests in Borneo, some caused by intentional burning to clear them for developing palm and rubber tree plantations, often getting out of hand and destroying jungles and virgin forests, together with some put it: wildlife.
I recall it similarly happening in Sumatra after attending a meeting in the port city of Medan (largest city in Sumatra) in 1997. I remember one week after we flew out of Medan, the exact same flight we took crashed because its engines conked out due to oxygen depletion of the atmosphere it traversed as a result of the forest fire. The smoke affected areas as far as Singapore. The one from Borneo in 2019 slightly affected some parts of the Central Visayas.
Indonesia annually encounters serious fire in its forests in Sulawesi, Borneo and Sumatra. The September 2019 fire actually burned more area (close to 900,000 ha) than the whole year of 2018 (530,000 ha) but there was more damage in 2015, when trees in 2.8 million ha of forest were burned.
Indonesia’s southern neighbor has encountered more problems these past years, and the current one is perhaps the worst ever, as CNN reported a senior firefighter describing it on 5-January.
The 6-January-2020 CNN report further added:
About 30 kilometers (19 miles) south, blood-red skies loomed over the town of Eden. There, hundreds of residents were seeking shelter on the beach on police advice, one Eden resident told CNN. Many houses have been destroyed in the area, and officials said they feared there would be fatalities.
A total of 146 fires are burning across the state, with 65 uncontained, according to the NSW Rural Fire Service (NSWRFS). About 2,700 firefighters were tackling the blazes on Sunday.“Conditions have eased today and firefighters have gained the upper hand on several dangerous fires. There are no total fire bans in place for Monday,” the NSWRFS posted on Twitter.
Earlier, NSWRFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told a news conference that Saturday was “one of our worst days ever on record.”
A “considerable number” of properties were lost across NSW on Saturday, Fitzsimmons said, adding that a 47-year-old man had died from cardiac arrest while fighting a fire threatening his friend’s home in Batlow. The man is the 24th person to die nationwide this fire season.
Separately, four firefighters in NSW were hospitalized due to smoke inhalation, heat exhaustion and hand burns. They have since been released.
“Australia’s flag carrier Qantas canceled all flights to and from the country’s capital, Canberra, on Sunday (5-January) due to smoke and hazardous weather conditions,” per the CNN report.
This is a grim reminder of that time I attended the 11th meeting of ARF Heads of Defense Universities Forum at Canberra on 8-12-October-2007. We observed how serious it could be as forests within visible distance from the Australian Defence University were burning.
The fire season in Australia has mostly natural causes. The dry weather and the summer heat, with heavy winds make a strong combination that enhances the summer phenomenon. There are also occurrences of arson, as experienced in November last year where a young volunteer was charged by the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.
As CNN,com reported on 6-January-2020,
“Fire season in Australia is always dangerous – the 2009 Black Saturday fires killed 173 people in Victoria, making it the deadliest bushfire disaster on record. But conditions have been unusually severe this year, fanning the flames and making firefighting conditions particularly difficult.
Australia is experiencing one of its worst droughts in decades – the country’s Bureau of Meteorology said in December that last spring was the driest on record. Meanwhile, a heatwave in December broke the record for highest nationwide average temperature, with some places sweltering under temperatures well above 40o Celsius (or about 113-120oF).xxxx
Experts say climate change has worsened the scope and impact of natural disasters like fires and floods –weather conditions are growing more extreme, and for years, the fires have been starting earlier in the season and spreading with greater intensity.
Several high-ranking emergency service officials, including the former commissioner of the NSW Fire and Rescue Department, sent letters to Prime Minister Scott Morrison in 2019 warning of the impact of the climate crisis on Australia.
In response, Morrison emphasized a commitment to reduce carbon emissions -but also said he would stick to “sensible” policies, and that there wasn’t “a single policy, be it climate or otherwise,” that can completely protect against the fires.”
Here are some remarkable characteristics on the current Australia case from media reports:
- Entire towns in the most populous state, New South Wales have been burned, losing more than 2,000 homes;
- Close to 8 million ha have been burned in six states, with NSW damaged the most with about 5 million hectares burned;
- The CNN report shows the comparative damage to other large fires on the other side of the world in 2019: California 100,000 ha, the Amazon rainforest 7,000,000 ha;
- 24 people have died to date, including some firefighters;
- The loss of wildlife (birds, kangaroos, koalas, deer, wild fowl, ostriches, etc.) is staggering, with millions likely dead, and close to 500,000,000 affected in varying degrees, which could double after more fires develop (the figures do not include insects, bats, and frogs);
- The fire season will still peak by end of January to February, and expected relief is more than 2 months away;
- Record heat broke an 80-year record in Canberra, reaching 44° Celsius, and close to 50° Celsius in a Sydney suburb, a record high.
While it is quite alarming to note the damage to the environment that these wildfires cause, at this point we should learn from the experience of many countries, including the United States especially in California’s case, which is smaller in comparison but whose case has been much addressed by US institutions.
Here are some very informative references that all of us must try to learn, and more so LGUs and players in the Disaster and Risk Reduction sector should really develop awareness on (much of this, no doubt already being accomplished by those concerned)
Forest Fire Prevention: Forest fires are dangerous, and we should all take special precautions year-round to make sure fires are not carelessly ignited. Forest fires threaten people unnecessarily, decimate wildlife and destroy forests that provide a livelihood and recreation for millions of people all over the world.
Forest fires – overview
Fire prediction & analysis
Fire suppression
How to prevent forest fires-American Red Cross.
Preventing forest fires with tree power. This is “out of the box” and is a sophisticated advancement.
https://phys.org/news/2008-09-forest-tree-power-sensor-electricity.html
Sensor system runs on electricity generated by trees.
http://news.mit.edu/2008/trees-0923
California Tests New Strategies to Prevent Deadly Wildfires.
The Link Between Power Lines and Wildfires.
https://www.ecmag.com/section/systems/link-between-power-lines-and-wildfires
Need to remove dead trees.
https://www.readyforwildfire.org/forest-health/dead-tree-removal/
How will California prevent more mega-wildfire disasters?
Use of the military. The AFP should consider developing Forest Battalions or engage in Forest conservation and management, together with its security mission in the mountains. Brazil has troops dedicated to forest firefighting missions.
With continuing increases in forest fires over the past years, should we wait for the tipping point?
Preventing forest fires is everyone’s concern.