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California is known for Hollywood, Disneyland, and now, wildfires. According to the New York Times piece, “Why does California Have So Many Wildfires?” by Kendra Pierre- Louis and John Schwartz, wildfires have been a known factor in California's summer and autumn months dating back to about 1932. This year has been full of challenges, but for California residents, 2020 has been more challenging than ever before.
In another article, “Wildfires In California Will ‘Continue To Get Worse,’ Climate Change Experts Explore Why”, Ezra David Romero states that August 17th marked the first of the many fires in California. The fires stretched out through the entire state and continue to burn through bordering states including Oregon, Washington, and Nevada.
According to www.fire.ca.gov 7,400 firefighters were still fighting the blaze as of October 19th. They responded to 22 fires on the 19th, 12 of them are still major. Around 4.1 million acres have burned this year alone due to the California wildfires. Along with that, 9,200 structures have also been burned, many being homes and businesses.
Kamri Cruz, a 14-year old that moved from Kahului, Maui to Vallejo, California this past summer explains how the fires have impacted her home. “The environment was very smokey during the fires and the sun turned red. On one day the whole sky was orange and it seemed as if we were on another planet.”
Cruz is not the only one who noticed the orange sky. Former President Barack Obama posted on his Instagram, a picture of the orange sky in San Francisco on September 9th. The post read “The fires across the West Coast are just the latest examples of the very real ways our changing climate is changing our communities.”
Each year the blaze from the California wildfires continue to get worse. According to sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com, Max Auffhammer, a professor from the University of California Berkeley, believes that “going forward, the 100 degree days will occur 20 days a summer or 30.” With California and surrounding states weather increasing in temperature, drought and fires will be more evident. This gives us a reminder to make sure that we take care of our environment.
Cruz also explains, “The worst part of the wildfires for me was that we couldn’t go outside and I felt so helpless.” Cruz was referring to when the air quality score reached a major number of 250. A score of 250 is in the range of 201-300 which is “Very Unhealthy” and almost hazardous according to the University of Columbia.
While we do not live in California, we still have some risk of wildfires in Hawaii. Here is a list of things you can do to prevent wildfires.
Never leave a fire unattended; Make sure that your fire is “dead out”.
When camping don’t drive on dry grass, your hot exhaust pipes may spark a fire.
Leave fireworks at home because you can accidentally light one and cause a spark.
(Tips from the USDA.gov and smokeythebear.org)
California’s blaze is continuing to get worse, and climate change on Earth is undoubtedly real. We must remember our actions have reactions, we should be protecting the Earth so that California’s blaze doesn’t get worse, together we can make a difference.