...A warmer world and drier conditions are leading to longer and more catastrophic wildfires. Almost every year, the inevitability of a lighting strike or human error is the root cause of a wildfire. As the climate increases and areas become drier, dry areas are becoming more vulnerable to bigger and long lasting wildfires. With warmer springs and hotter summers, early spring snow melts typically causes soils to be drier for longer, increasing the likelihood of a drought and longer wildfire season. There are many environmental dilemmas the globe is facing, however, the increase in the earth’s climate has been a direct correlation with a number of earth’s natural disasters. Wildfires have consumed an insurmountable amount of the earth’s forest. With wildfires occurring four times more since the 1980’s, one can argue the increasing climate has a great impact on the globe wildfires. As the world warms up, we can expect more wildfires. The dry areas in the United States are more susceptible to wildfire than ever before. The risk of wildfires depends on a number...
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...A wildfire is an instance of uncontrolled burning in grasslands,brush,or woodland. Wildfires are called many names. Wildfires are called wildland fire, forest fire, vegetation fire,grass fire,peat fire, bushfire in Australia, or a hill fire. Wildfires begin unnoticed, but they move quickly setting everything in their path on fire. Wildfires are 90% started by human activities. Some are also caused by lightning, human carelessness,arson,and lava. Four out of five wildfires are started by people. Wildfires can occur anywhere, but they are most common in forest areas. “Wildfires are also common in grassland and shrublands.” Firefighters have ways to putting out these instance fires. Firefighters also have tools that they use to put out these...
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...Two of the most prominent disturbances to trees are wildfire and bark beetles in the Northwest United states. Over the years, millions of acres of timberland and forest have been damaged or destroyed due to wildfires and bark beetles. Both of these disturbances are brought about by climate and stand conditions. The future forecast for climate changes suggest that there will be an increase in wildfires and also the bark beetle outbreaks. These disturbances affect the water quantity, wildlife, and timber production but with the combination of bark beetle cause tree mortality and wildfires there will be more combustible fuels for fires to feed off of. Effects of the combination could mean larger and hotter crown fires in forests infected by bark...
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...Wildfires Imagine driving down the road and looking over to see a field burning in flames, animals dodging the heat and running for their lives, you just witnessed a wildfire. Wildfires happen everywhere. They can start by natural cause or even human cause. A wildfire is defined as an uncontrolled fire, usually in places of high vegetation, such as forest, and in places with lots of wind. Wildfires are ‘quasi-natural’ hazards, meaning that they are not entirely natural features. They can also be caused by human error as well. The four major causes of wildfire ignitions are lightning, volcanic eruptions, sparks from rockfalls, and spontaneous combustion: the ignition of organic matter without apparent cause, typically through heat generated...
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...13, 2015 Kim Hall Spreading Like Wildfire A wildfire broke out in the fifth episode of the second season of the neighborhood. The wildfire incident generated many reports of the negative effects in diverse parts of the community. There were obvious concerns about the smoke and other possible pollutants from wildfires posing health threats to the community. Those concerns were certainly well founded. The official of the city made some statements telling citizens that they were not in danger, and would be alerted if there were cause for action on their behalf. The fire was not contained after five days of attempts. Five days of uncontrolled forest fire destroyed incalculable acres of land, and the amount of destruction increased with every second the fire remained out of control. It seemed as if the local fire department thought they were capable of getting the fire under control when it began. A turn for the worse came with escalated winds. The rate of speed and fierceness of the wildfire increased with each gust. The community’s population started to see and feel the adverse effects of the fire, and the pressure and strain begin to move from their individual homes to the community’s health care facilities. "The smoky air conditions affect everyone, but especially those with pre-existing problems, such as chronic lung conditions," said Neighborhood Hospital Emergency Department (ED) physician James Gordon, MD. The unrestrained wildfire outbreak in the community brought a...
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...causes that can lead to deforestation for instance, agriculture expansion, logging operations, land abuse, and accidental wildfires. Even through there are a variety of factors that can lead to deforestation the end result is always the same, utter destruction. To begin with, the concept of deforesting is nothing new, the main differences between the present and the past lies in the causes. In the past deforesting was mainly used for agriculture, typically it was used in the slash and burn style. In the present deforesting for agriculture remains but in a much greater scale, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF) about thirty-six football fields of trees are lost every minute due to deforestation. Agriculture plays a huge part in deforestation especially with the world population at an all-time high, in fact farmers are constantly expanding their land and cutting down trees to grow crops. Next, unlike agriculture logging expansions didn’t occur until most recently. Logging operations are the root cause of the world’s paper, if it weren’t for loggers there would be no paper/wooden products. Although their many differences between logging operations and agriculture, a big difference would be that most logging operations are required by law to replant seeds to regrow the forest after deforestation. Unfortunately the cause of replanting was due to the devastating effects of deforestation that included soil erosion and floods. Furthermore, another big cause of deforestation is land abuse...
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...the fire may be uncontrollable in an area where vegetation is vulnerable and usually occurs in the outdoors in areas such as grassland, woodlands, scrubland, bush lands and other wooded areas that act as a source of fuel for the fire to expand. Wildfires can be characterized in terms of their physical properties, their fuel type, and the effect that weather has on the fire will determine how disastrous they may be. Wildfires can cover acres of land or in some cases an acre or less. In order for wildfire to burn, the three conditions of fuel, oxygen, and heat source must be present. Fuel is described as any flammable material surrounding a fire, which includes trees, grasses, brush, and even homes. The more fuel sources there are the more intense the fire will be. The air supplies the oxygen a fire needs to burn. Heat sources, may include lightning, hot winds, or even the sun, which help ignite a wildfire, and gives it the heat needed to start up. Even climate changes such as El Nino can influence wildfires. Wildfires occur all around the world and are very common in the western United States, where the weather condition (heat, drought, and thunderstorms) is perfect for wildfires to start. For instance, in California we often have wildfires that can blow for miles of land due to the dry Santa Ana winds. They are also mainly started by humans, but they may also occur naturally if all conditions are...
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...September 24 2013 Earthquake U.S Geological Survey A magnitude 7.7 earthquake hit Awaran, Pakistan due to a strike-slip occurring between the plates. The plates collided between the transition zone between the northward subduction of the Arabic plate beneath the Eurasia plate. The epicenter of the event occurred 69km north of the Awaran, Pakistan border. The earthquake killed at least 825 people and injured hundred of others. The Balochistan government estimated that the earthquake had destroyed at least 21,000 homes. In the past 40 years, only one significant earthquake had injured humans in that area. The earthquake occurred along the two plate boundaries of the region, the area where typically most earthquakes occur due to collision of plates by convergent or transform boundaries. Due to the poor economic area in which the earthquake took place, many homes collapsed easily as many were not reinforced like many buildings are now in the United States. As the location of the city was so close to the epicenter, the city felt a high intensity level. The reason for the creation of the earthquake deals with the Elastic Rebound Theory that states crust bends as strains builds up until the earthquake occurs making bent crust snap back into place. While detection devices have been created such as seismograph, many devices to forewarn individuals of future earthquakes have still not been created. Spatial trends have been one concept in preparing individuals for upcoming earthquakes...
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...the actions of health care workers, steps taken, and needed to reduce risk factors, the role of public health agencies, and the community’s involvement to assist with their own safety. For example, did city officials prepare the residents of the neighborhood adequately? What is required to handle a wildfire emergency? What other public health agencies could have assisted with this emergency and how would this affect the outcome of the wildfire at the neighborhood forest? Wikipedia defines (“Emergency,” n.d.) as, “A situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or environment.” Emergency preparedness involves interventions to prevent situations from becoming worse. Identifying potential risk factors is the key for communities to devise an effective emergency plan to decrease the potential for increase injuries or death. How a community recovers from a disaster is just as important as the preparations taken to minimize the effects of that particular emergency or threat. The neighborhood community has a forest located along the banks of the Neighborhood River with a population of 64,000 residents. The past five days firefighters are trying to control a wildfire west of the forest, which is raging out of control, and is not contained because of the early windy season that is causing destruction of acres of...
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...A wildfire is an uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation that occurs in the countryside or a wilderness area. Other names such as brush fire, bushfire, forest fire, desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, vegetation fire, and veldfire may be used to describe the same phenomenon depending on the type of vegetation being burned, and the regional variant of English being used. A wildfire differs from other fires by its extensive size, the speed at which it can spread out from its original source, its potential to change direction unexpectedly, and its ability to jump gaps such as roads, rivers and fire breaks. Wildfires are 'quasi-natural' hazards, meaning that they are not entirely natural features (like volcanoes, earthquakes and tropical storms). This is because they are caused by human activity as well. The four major natural causes of wildfire ignitions are lightning, volcanic eruption, sparks from rockfalls, and spontaneous combustion. The thousands of coal seam fires that are burning around the world, such as those in Centralia, Burning Mountain, and several coal-sustained fires in China, can also flare up and ignite nearby flammable material. The most common human sources of wildfires are arson, discarded cigarettes, sparks from equipment, and power line arcs (as detected by arc mapping). There are mainly 4 types of forest fires. They are:- Ground fires are fed by subterranean roots, duff and other buried organic matter. This fuel type is especially...
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...Colorado Wildfires 2012 Inter-Agency Communication Introduction Natural disasters have been around since the beginning of time. Every day, natural processes are taking place that can disrupt the equilibrium in our lives which can cause natural disasters. Learning from the past has caused better communications, and technological advancements have helped in predicting many events, but never can man actually predict the exact catastrophe. With the global population expanding, we become more vulnerable to these threats, and our only means of protection is through better planning. One particular natural disaster that has become a complex danger over time is the wildland fire. Wildfires have occurred on every continent except Antarctica. Wildfires are a natural phenomenon caused by topography, fuels, and weather that man has had to deal with since the cave man era. History reveals the progression of wildfires but not until the 20th century have wildfires caused so much destruction. The wide spread population growth along the wildland-urban areas of Colorado and other natural prone fire habitats have cause for huge concern as wildfires get harder to control. The year 2002, which was previously the worst wildfire season recorded in Colorado’s history prior to this year, caused state and federal land management agencies to increase their efforts to work with communities and private land owners about risk assessment, addressing wildfire prevention, and mitigation.ii It all...
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...One way is the government could do is pay for the wells that need to go deeper in the ground to get water. Another, way people can help the animals, is by provide shelter, food, and water for the animals that lost their homes by wildfire or not having water. Finally, one way that the government can do to help the crops by using the helicopters to carry water from rivers and take it to the crops that are in need of water. There many way that the government could do to help with the drought but its cost money and the government do not want to spend that...
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...Climate Change A current threat to the Mojave desert is climate change. Climate change has an enormous effect on the Mojave desert. These higher temperatures cause a drought which then dries up the area causing the whole desert to be extremely dry. “Higher temperatures may produce an increasing number of wildfires that alter desert landscapes by eliminating slow-growing trees and shrubs and replacing them with fast-growing grasses”(Desert threats). This is a threat since it kills off and harms other animals that might be endangered. This accentuates the importance of the threats in the Mojave desert and it causes an extreme amount of damage to the environment. The climate change causes tons upon tons of problems. One of these problems is...
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...notice. Photos courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management Map courtesy of Cartesia Map Art US Terrain Bureau of Land Management Sites in Arizona description of the physical attributes The Bureau of Land Management oversees 12.2 million surface acres of land (and another 17.5 million subsurface acres) in Arizona. Some of this property is organized as designated wilderness, wilderness study area, National Conservation Area and National Monument but a large part of the property held by the BLM is essentially empty and available for most public uses ("Abandoned Mine Lands", 2014). The Bureau of Land Management’s Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) program enhances public safety and improves water quality by reducing or eliminating the effects of past hardrock mining in the western United States. BLM maintains an inventory of known abandoned mine lands on public lands ("Abandoned Mine Lands", 2014). Most of the sites are abandoned hardrock mines. As of April 18, 2014, the inventory contained nearly 46,000 sites and 85,000 features. Approximately 23% of the sites have either been remediated, have reclamation actions planned or underway, or do not require further action. The remaining 80% require further investigation and/or remediation ("Abandoned Mine Lands", 2014). The BLM and its partners are working on sharing and displaying AML spatial data within a National Mine Land Inventory. BLM and its “Cooperative Conservation” partners mitigate hazards to protect public health and...
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...A drought is a prolonged period of below-average precipitation that causes a water deficit in a particular area. Capable of lasting for months to years, the degree of drought severity and its duration depends on a number of compounding factors, including precipitation, soil moisture, stream flow, ground water and reservoir levels, agricultural health, local geography, and snowpack. Humans also play an important role in drought through factors such as water demand and water management policies. Additionally, droughts also increase the chances of flash floods, wildfire, and landslides. The severity and physical characteristics of a drought vary drastically from region to region. Resultantly, drought and the impacts that it can have in these...
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