Article | Fire, Freezing And Forests | Dr (Ms) Sharad Singh | Central Chronicle

Article | Fire, Freezing And Forests | Dr (Ms) Sharad Singh | Central Chronicle 

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Article

Fire, Freezing And Forests

-    Dr (Ms) Sharad Singh

Writer, Author & Social Activist

Blogger - "Climate Diary Of Dr (Ms) Sharad Singh"

            Climate change has increased the incidence of wildfires in the world in recent years, while record-breaking winter cold left no stone unturned to freeze the world. These events are coming to us every year more effectively than ever before. If we still believe that due to the cutting of forests, there is no fire in the remaining forests or the temperature reaches below the freezing point in winter even in normal areas and for this also the lack of forests is not responsible, then we should assume that we have made our future insecure.

In the fire near Yoshimite National Park, 12,000 acres of forest have been destroyed. About 3,000 people became homeless. The rapidly spreading forest fire forced more than 6,000 people to leave their homes to move to safer places. In view of the increasing risk of fire, Governor Gavin Newsom declared emergency in Mariposa County, California. 

In the same time, American news agency said that "the Alaska is burning this year in ways rarely or ever seen, from the largest wildfire in a typically mainly fireproof southwest region to a pair of blazes that ripped through forests and produced smoke that blew hundreds of miles to the the Bering Sea community of Nome, where the normally crystal clear air was pushed into the extremely unhealthy category. Already more than 530 wildfires have burned an area the size of Connecticut and the usual worst of the fire season lays ahead. While little property has burned, some residents have been forced to evacuate and one person was killed - a helicopter pilot died last month when he crashed while attempting to carry a load of equipment for firefighters."

Heat waves and droughts, which are exacerbated by a warming climate, are making wildfires more frequent, destructive, and harder to fight in many places. In few month ago Portugal, Spain, France, England and Germany also had affected by wildfires. No doubt, the incidence of forest fires is increasing worldwide due to climate change. According to the Council on Energy Environment and Water (CEEW) report, the incidence of forest fires has increased in India in the last two decades. More than 62 percent of India's states have been affected by forest fires. 

For the last few years, we are seeing the destruction of the forests of our earth in two ways. One is cutting down the forests for their own selfishness and secondly, the ever increasing incidents of forest fires are mixing the forests into ashes. The most recent example of a plan to destroy the forest for selfishness is the plan to cut the forests of Buxwaha in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh, India. According to the estimates of the agencies, more than two lakh trees will be cut just because diamonds have been found in that forestland. Instead of trees that give invaluable oxygen, we are going to choose precious diamonds. By the luck of these trees right now The National Green Tribunal's Bhopal bench has stayed the felling of trees in Buxwaha for diamond mining. Otherwise we have proved that we love diamonds and jewels more than life.

We have constantly shortened the forests to build big dams, and sometimes to expand cities. This is having a profound effect on wildlife. Wild animals are being forced to enter cities, where they are killed by humans. Due to this the behavior of wild animals is also changing. According to wildlife experts, the single-living leopard has been seen in groups of six to eight leopards in many places in India. This change in the behavior of wild animals is worrying. Deforestation has a direct impact on the environment. The temperature of the earth is increasing, along with the aridity is also increasing. Due to this the dangers of forest fires are increasing. The latest example of this we have seen as forest-fire of California. Wherever the forest is cut, its effect falls on the whole earth. Similarly, fire anywhere in the forests, its heat and carbon dioxide affects the whole earth. Experts say that if the temperature of the earth increases by 1.5 ° C as a result of climate change, then it can have very serious consequences. So far, global temperatures have risen by 1.2 °C from pre-industrial levels.

Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, the goal was to allow the global average temperature to rise no more than 2 °C and it was said that it would not be allowed to exceed 1.5 °C. The final IPCC report, published in 2013, said that humans have been the 'major cause' of climate change since 1950. Climate change has been considered as the reason for the rapid increase in cases of forest fires and floods in the last few months. The report has also included those chapters in which cases of severe weather are coming to the fore due to rising temperatures. "They have been reluctant at first to specify an upper limit for sea level rise, but we think it's time to warn about this," says Professor Arthur Peterson from UCL in London.

Right now we are witnessing forest fires and half the world scorching with heat, whereas the situation will turn exactly the opposite when the cold weather arrives. Those places will face extreme freezing, fog and falling temperatures that have never fallen below about 10 °C before. Actually, due to the effect of global warming, it is getting warmer, the winter season is getting colder. In recent years, it has been seen that due to the polar vortex, the weather becomes very cold. This is a cyclone of cold winds, which comes at the poles and due to this the temperature goes down several degrees below zero. Increasing signs have been seen that these polar vortices are now forming mostly outside the Arctic. And the reason for this is jet streams. They contribute a lot in keeping the weather warm. Due to these winds, the Arctic is constantly warming and this polar vortex, moving south, reached America last winter, causing the temperature in America to drop several degrees below zero. Its effect was seen in the form of winter cold in all the continents of the world.

So, if we want to understand the effects of climate change, first we have to understand the relationship between fire, cold and forests. 

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 (31.07.2022)

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