Forest Fires: A Huge Climate Problem for California

Through just the early part of November 2008, wildland fires have burned more acres in California this year than in any year back to 1970, the first year that consistent, modern records were kept. Because of a June 2008 lightning storm, the 10 biggest fires this year, all occurred in Northern California, and many were in rural areas. At one point this year, more than 2,000 fires were burning at the same time. The driest spring since the 1920s had left trees and brush like tinder. Eight of the 10 largest fires in California this year, started on June 20 or 21, during the lightning storm, including the Basin fire , which burned for six weeks in Big Sur, blackening 162,000 acres and destroyed several homes and buildings.

Most wildfires in recent years have been assigned some sort of human cause:

- Arson accounts for 6% of wildfires in 2007 and 12% the year before.
- About 1% - 2% are caused by electric power lines.
- About a third of last year's wildfires and more than half the year before, were attributed to various hum activities or carelessness. Significant numbers were caused by equipment use or debris burning; others by vehicles, campfires, smoking or playing with fire.

Lightning, which caused just 1% - 2% of the wildfires in 2006 and 2007, was a big factor in 2008.

So what does this tell us ? We need to be on a high degree of alert and be cautious when working with fire in forests. We got to also look around us and perhaps thin out the bushes as much as possible to create a buffer zone amongst our homes.

Forest fires also add significant amount of Greenhouse gases to our environment. We need to look seriously at sensible alternatives for reducing electricity consumption and conserve water whenever possible. Electric power plants are big generator of Greenhouse gases. By minimizing consumption of electricity, we can reduce the number of new greenhouse generating powerplants. We could eliminate the creation of new power plants by reducing electricity consumption such as Phantom Loads. Also, one of the biggest side effects of forest fires is the contamination of clean drinking water, currently banked by all of our water districts, in underground reservoirs, 600 ft. below the earth's surface. We could also explore Methane Reduction techniques by leveraging Genetic Engineering advances and applying them to our farms and land fills.

Yes, we all need to play a part in improving our quality of life on this planet. Small things can go a long way in helping our community !!