Why Wildfires Matter!

Join Amber and Kendra this week as we explore why wildfires matter! In this episode you will learn about wildfires and the impact on the environment - both good AND bad, in addition to how wildfires are tracked and even some of the contributing factors with the Amazon rainforest fires. 

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is episode 14, why wildfires matter.

Speaker 2: 0:17

[inaudible]

Speaker 1: 0:20

welcome to why blank matters where we explore why small topics have big impacts. I'm your host, Amber Williams, and I'm your host, Kendrick Clark. If you're new here, welcome. If you like what you hear, be sure to subscribe so you can make sure you have all our latest updates. I looked up how to start a wildfire and I got 48,000 matches. That's really terrible. That is, has all of our jokes are, I feel like you're getting worse. Yeah. So today we're discussing wildfires and why they matter. So the first thing is what is a wildfire? Cause we obviously assume that people know, but it is an uncontrolled fire that often occurs in a wild land but can also consume houses and agricultural resources. Um, it also can be called a forest fire, vegetation fire or a brush. Fire. And wildfires can be both manmade or natural, right? And they're not all bad. Some of them are unnecessary part of the ecosystem, but the ones that are caused by humans are typically bad typically. And 80 to 90% are started by humans often due to human error. So an unintended campfire, discarded cigarettes or just straight up arson, but some natural causes of wildfires are usually like dry brush and lightning. I'm assuming. Are there any other causes of natural wildfires? There are. You can actually have an accumulation of dead matter on like a forest floor that sounds really gross. Leaves, twigs, you know, trees that have fallen down and sometimes they can create so much heat. They actually spontaneously combust. Really, really, it's crazy. Um, but they could also be calls through down power lines, um, electrical issues. And then lightning is a good portion of that. Okay. In order for fire to burn, you need three things. You have to have fuel. So some type of combustible material, you need heat. That is a source that's responsible for the initial ignition of the fire. It also requires oxygen. So air typically contains 21% oxygen and most fires require at least 16% to burn. Hmm. But part of needing oxygen is why some areas tend to have worse wildfires than others. Obviously there's a lot of factors that play into wildfires and one of the factors is geography. So wildfires are more inclined to go up Hill. So if you're up on top of a Hill, like if that's where you live, like you're going to be a more dangerous spot than it, than if you're at the bottom of the Hill in California where you have Hills or mountains and the Santa Ana winds, then it tends to just fan the flame per se as opposed to Texas. What's, what's our statistic? Do we have anything on Texas? Yeah. So we often think of California when we think of wildfires. Um, but Texas actually had more wildfires than any other state. Um, California was number two, but because of all those other factors with the Santa Ana winds, um, also the dried out aquifers that we talked about with beavers, all that leads California to have the most acres burns, even though Texas has more wildfires, total California had three times more acres burned than Texas. Gotcha. Um, so that makes a big deal. And in 2019 there were roughly 36,000 wildfires that burned about 4.3 million acres. Wait, what year is this? This is this year. So far. One of the craziest things I learned about is that there could actually be fire tornadoes. Oh my goodness. Yes. This is like, I didn't realize that this was a real thing until we started doing the research for this. It sounds like, like sharp NATO, like something that was made at for a scifi. Yes, yes. But they formed when the wind around a fire begins to span and they're rare, but they can be very destructive, um, due to causing rapid spread of fire. Um, it's like a flame thrower per luggage, nature's flame thrower. I love that. So wildfires can also have their own like microcosm of weather so they can produce their own type of weather around in the local area. I don't know what that looks like, but I read in my research that that happens. So, yeah. And the deadliest fire that's ever happened in U S history was the Peshtigo fire that happened in Wisconsin in 1871. It ignited on October 8th and burned approximately 1.2 million acres and killed at least 1100 people. But some estimates put it closer to 2,500, 1100 or 2,500 people. Holy cow. Um, but the interesting thing about it is it actually occurred the same day as the great Chicago fire, which was more prominent in the news but had significantly less deaths. It had less deaths. Oh, okay. And that was, yeah, that was also 1871 cause I think I mentioned that in the prohibition yeah. Episode. But yeah, so it was kind of weird that they happened at the same time. But we often hear about the great Chicago fire, but not this one. Right. And I, I mentioned in our Instagram live the other day that the city fires were part of how we built our infrastructure for water and sewage. Um, so it wasn't clean water driving that and it was putting out fires. So, so economically the national Institute of standards and technology, which is part of the us department of commerce, they state that the annual total economic burden of wildfires is estimated between 71.1 billion to 347.8 billion. Um, and so the costs and losses depend on to cost. They look at all the infrastructure needed to put out fires. They look at like educational material. There's like a giant list of things you wouldn't even think about that they put into that. Um, and then losses of course is the majority of what the economic cost is. So that's loss of homes, loss of, um, farmland, Lawson lives even. Um, and, and headwater economics stated that half of those calls are paid at a local level. So it's not your state or federal government that's really having to live with the impacts of that. It's really your people within your community. Wow. You know, the reason I came to understand that wildfiles wildfires were important is because when I first moved here, I started a meetup and we had somebody that was in like wildlife and fish and also somebody from Australia. And they were talking about, not me though. They were talking about the importance of, of wildfires. And I was like, what? And I was like, that's crazy. So it was just crazy that I learned that. But, uh, the one gentleman from Australia talked about how Australia got so good at fighting, why like preventing wildfires that when they finally did have one, because our ecosystem does rely on them to some extent. It was massive and it just killed so many people. So they learned not to fight or not to prevent all Y wildfires, but um, to kind of control like when they might be, uh, effecting loss of life or loss of property. Yeah. And honestly, if you look at the national park service, they all have like fire plans, pretty much don't how to deal with a wildfire. But they also do what's called prescribed burns. So they have a whole system of how they will actually intentionally burn parts of the forest to help prevent those bigger fires from happening later. And as a process of treating the land by very carefully applying fire to burn away the vegetation. Right. Um, and it helps reduce some of the excessive amount of brush and encourages some new gurus. So the new growth happens, it burns out all the infections, like any diseases that the trees might be carrying or things of that nature. So, and natural fires are important cause I do clear out the dead wood and other materials but also returns important new nutrients back into the forest soil that was previously being stored and all that dead matter. Um, it also clears that growth. So sunlight can reach the floor, which obviously you need sunlight for plants to grow. And there are also trees that have evolved to need fire to reproduce their seeds actually require fire to germinate. I started example was the lodge pole pine and the eucalyptus plant. I didn't realize that eucalypt eucalyptus needed that. That's awesome. Yeah. But there was also a study in Tallahassee and they studied an area over nearly 40 years and during that 40 year time frame, they intentionally did not let any of the land burn. Okay. And what they found out is that plant diversity in that area fell by 90%. Wow. So it just shows how much all those different plants need those fires to be able to survive. Um, they even had one species of bird that completely disappeared as well. Really? Yeah. And for some of you may be like, Oh, but what about the animals? I'm like, I remember Gatlinburg had a big fire a few years ago and then it's like all the pictures of why some deer, which is like sad cause I love deer, right? Um, but most animals are actually able to escape and animals are really smart and they have this inherit survival and seek. So most of them get out of the way before the fires even get bad enough because their instincts are like, Oh, I need to go. And that's what they do. Uh, it's funny that you mentioned the fires a few years ago because after I moved here, I remember Savannah being very hazy and the reason for that was all the smoke from the mountains up North. Like in North Carolina, we're burning and all that smoke was coming down from North Carolina in a, and it was just making this fan of real how you see, I was like that's crazy. That is coming that far. Yeah. There's even one type of beetle that uses specialized infrared radiation sensors to detect burning fires and they actually love forest fires. So when there's a fire they'll go find it. And when they get there they'll try to find another beetle to mate with and they lay their eggs in the scorched trees. What's the term for people like? I'm like a pyro pyromaniac. Yeah, they're pyromaniac. They are, well part of the reason they like it is because basically the trees don't have their normal protective mechanisms. So like SAP and things like that that protect it from bugs and other creatures don't exist because of the fire, the fire burns or the way. So it makes it more basically more habitable, um, for the beetle. So how does it make it more habitable? Like how does a fire make it more because appealing cause I, I don't know, slice it right. I guess it would rather deal with the fire than the SAP. Okay. So next we're going into the health of people and also the environment because of wildfires. Yeah. Cause obviously wildfire does a lot of damage but it also affects people's health. Obviously you think about the smoke, the most identifiable aspect of that and how it would affect respiration and your lungs and wildfire. Smoke contains, obviously it has carbon monoxide but it also has particulate matter, nitrogen oxide and some various organic compounds as well. But the particular matter is one of the things that tends to have some of the most immediate health effects particular matter is associated with adverse respiratory health issues. Um, also in the end with fires you also have burned, do you have heat induced illnesses? Uh, particularly for firefighters, you have increased rates of admission for cardiovascular complaints and eye irritation. But one of the more interesting things I found is that there was a study they found that high levels of exposure can even impair the immune system of children. A Stanford university tested blood of children exposed to wildfire, smoke blown in from Fresno and they found changes in a gene that develops and functions. These are part of their T-cells and it puts the children at greater risk of developing allergies or infection because the T-cells are like the peacekeeper of the immune system. And so basically exposure to that wildfire is changing that T-cell. And then the, obviously there are also mental health effects of wildfires. Uh, the American psychological association has an entire section about recovering from wildfires, but more specifically, there was a study in Australia by the university of Adelaide and they found that 12 months after the fires they had 42% of the population exposed to wildfires were classified as potential psychiatric cases, which is two times more than that of non-exposed people. And obviously property damage and physical injury during fires can were significantly associated with psychopathology. So you have PTSD, depression, increased symptoms of anxiety, trouble sleeping. But for the average person to say, you know, we're here in Savannah, Georgia, even just watching the wildfires on TV can cause what's called vicarious traumatization. And it's basically has symptoms suggestive a PTSD and people who have not actually been exposed themselves to tragedy. And it's only through media exposure. So in addition to the carbon dioxide and the mental health aspect, one of the things I learned was how NASA tracks wildfires. And, but during this I learned, I learned about carbon monoxide. So it's really interesting and I don't entirely understand it. So if there's any environmental enthusiasts listening, we'd love to hear from you on this topic.

Speaker 3: 14:52

But so there's some different ways that parts of the world respond to carbon monoxide or wildfires. So in parts of South America and Africa, wildfires will increase the carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. But in America, in China, it creates the opposite response. So somehow wildfires decrease the amount of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. And so one of the things that they attributed to is like cultural and habits of people. So like industrialization. So for whatever reason, wildfires take away some of that carbon monoxide in areas where there's a lot of industrialization, how does that cancel each other out? Cause there's more cause it's the burning of fossil fuels and things like that. So I don't know how, yeah, so I learned a lot about NASA in this research. You know, when we were going over our outline ambers that we were talking Amazon, well what all do you have? I'm like, Oh, I have this, this and this. She's like, Oh well most of my research is about NASA. I'm like, wait, what?[inaudible]. So NASA and NOAA play a big part in tracking fires and what does NOAA, national oceanic and atmospheric administration. So, um, they kinda got into a little bit of a fisticuff with the president via Twitter couple. How this all got started was very interesting. In January of 1980 scientists, Michael Mattson and Jeff Dozier working on NOAA satellite for environmental satellite data and information. Uh, they created the a V, H, R. R. so the advanced, very high resolution radio meter with this creation. And with the satellite being up in space, they discovered some tiny bright spots on a satellite image in the Persian Gulf. It was a camp size fire, fire flares caused by burning of methane and oil Wells. This marked the first time that such a fire was seen from space, and this was the start of a lot of fire research. So a Dozier would become the founding Dean of the Bren school of environmental science and management of the university of California. He developed a mathematical method to distinguish small fires from other sources of heat. So it's the foundation for nearly all the subsequent satellite fire detection algorithms. So I don't know, I don't even begin to understand all the algorithms and how that plays into it. But when I was looking on the website to track fires, I'm like, why am I not seeing the Amazon fires on the map? So there's some key reasons why I didn't cause I was like, I think I know where the Amazon and is. Why is it on fire? So there's some key things to note here. One, NASA does not track the size of a fire digitally on their maps. Instead they track the number of fires. So I don't know what distincts itself from one fire or the next fire or like did they combined and like turn into one giant fire. So does that just super it? Yeah. And so, um, but I was like, do I not know where the Amazon is? Like when I was looking at the maps cause there's no lines to distinguish, finish to like giant. I mean feel like it's hard to miss. So it was during this time that I learned that the Amazon, it's not the heart of the Amazon rainforest that's burning, it's the fringes. Um, before we get into that, I'm gonna kinda talk a little bit more about NASA and NOAA. So NASA has several different cameras on their satellites that track fires in different ways. And so they have the Terra satellite, which I believe they launched in 1999 and then they have the Ahlquist satellite, the advanced, very high resolution radio meter, the a. V. H. R. R. I feel like there are acronyms just as hard to say as the whole thing. Anyway, it led to the design of the first instrument with a spectral band explicitly designed to detect fires. And then you also have the moderate resolution imaging spectro Ray radio meter, which stands for modus. And I think that's also on the Terra satellite. But the, the white on NASA's maps show 30 fires per a thousand square thousand square miles and the orange detects 10 fires per a thousand square miles. And then there's the also the visible and pred imaging radio meter and the joint polar satellite system, which produces two data streams, one for NASA in one for Noah. So a lot of big words together. Those create the operational data for the national weather service. Okay. So, um, so NASA, according to NASA, something is always burning. Yes. And then they've got the carbon monoxide stuff. It can also be a sign of seasonal patterns with the carbon monoxide or cumin cultural patterns, agricultural burning or land clearing. Okay. So the MOBIT system is what they use to track carbon monoxide. And that stands for in the measurement of pollution in the trophic sphere. And that's the lower atmosphere and how it interacts with the land and ocean biospheres. Like you knew that. I was going to ask you what the troposphere was.[inaudible] cause I wrote that down cause I was like, Oh man, I think I learned this at one point in school. But man, like coming back to this makes me realize like how much I don't know. But every episode makes me realize how much I don't know. And that's not, um, so carbon monoxide hinders the atmosphere's natural ability to rid itself of harmful pollutants. And that's why carbon monoxide tracking is really important. So the Mo bit measures admitted and reflected radiants from the earth in three spectral bands. I don't entirely know what spectral bands are, but um, they mentioned a, lots of it sounds important. But then there's also the Astor advanced space born thermally mission in reflection radio meter, which is also used for a carbon monoxide. And the high resolution image of the earth is shown in four 14 different wavelengths and of the electromagnetic spectrum ranging from the visible. And thermal and infrared spectrum. So, uh, when I first came into the air force, I had to learn all of this like wavelengths, frequencies, and what's visible and what's not. So part of what they're looking at is not visible to the human eye, but it might be things like ultraviolet or infrared, which some infrared is visible, but not all of it. So, so does the camera has a zoom lens. It does not collect data continuously. And, and one of the reasons we had looked at wildfire to talk about is because the Amazon fires are going on right now and not like Amazon, the people you get your packages from. Right. But like the force, we actually had this on our list long before the Amazon wildfire started. So yeah, I think we had this on our list like before we even started. Um, so it's really, um, interesting to when you really start diving into the Amazon rain forest fires because you see things depicted in one way, but then when you start diving in a little bit deeper, it's not so straight and narrow. And so, like I mentioned before, it's not the heart of the Amazon rainforest that are burning. It's the fringes and it's probably not being burned from a wildfire perspective. I think it's actually being burned for agricultural gain if you will. And, and there's a lot of missed information because yes there are fires going on in the Amazon and yes it's something that needs to be dealt with, but it's actually not the most fires that have ever happened in the Amazon. Right. And if as long as it's dealt with, it won't be catastrophic. Right. And so it's, it's the number of wildfires are significantly down from a few decades ago. But in recent news, this is the most fires they've had in the most recent years. But also there's a lot of data that seems very misconstrued or that maybe the media don't quite understand themselves cause we're definitely seeing a lot of numbers that were inconsistent. It makes me think that there's certain agencies that have an agenda one way or the other, whether they're pro like their environmental advocates or whether they're a business, you know, against environmental things. Cause that takes away money. So it's very convoluted. So he saw a lot of different statistics about like how much carbon dioxide, the Amazon forest, um, take out of the atmosphere or out of the environment. And I think the important thing to he see heres cause like we saw the 20% like the Amazon takes, it absorbed 20% of the world's carbon dioxide when I don't think that's entirely true. I think what that statistic was meant to say was the Amazon absorbs 20% of the forests, carbon dioxide, not the world's carbon dioxide. But when you see it in a short news article, they're talking about 20%

Speaker 1: 24:18

of the world's carbon dioxide. So say this, the statistics, I said they, the frame, the Amazon rainforest provides 20% of the world's oxygen, but then they said that's not correct. Right. So, but the, the forest absorb carbon dioxide and whatnot. So I want to say in that 20% number has been bounced around in a lot of different ways. Yes. It's a very easy statistic. So it's a lot of misinformation.

Speaker 3: 24:45

Right? Right. And so one of the things to keep in mind is how the global economy is playing into this right now. Brazil's president, Jair both scenario, he won on the platform that he was going to be an advocate for the farmers and that means creating more arable land for the farmers. Now one thing to keep in mind here is that the trade war between the United States and China significantly benefit Brazil. And that's why Brazil has been such an advocate of us having these trade forms like China because as a result of these trade Wars, um, Brazil has moved up to like the number one or two spot for sort soy farmers and somewhere at the top for cow farmers as well. So they're becoming some of the top exporters for soy and beef. And so their economy depends heavily on agriculture, agricultural exports. So they might definitely have an agenda to, to create more arable land now since 2000 and 2014 or in that amount of time, they've doubled their amount of deforestation to create arable land for the farms. So the arable land is anything that can be capable of being plowed to grow crops. Um, and something to also keep in mind is that Brazil is one of the biggest contributors of greenhouse gases coming in at 46% and that's from[inaudible],

Speaker 1: 26:14

the Washington post. Yeah. While deforestation has increased, it's still below its historical average. They're still not the worst it's ever been. So just keep that in mind. Also, the other statistics about the Amazon

Speaker 3: 26:27

wildfires is that the Amazon rainforest is roughly 2.1 is two point 12 million square miles across Brazil. And then it also extend into Peru, Bolivia, Columbia, and other countries. And it is considered a global defense to climate change. But as we've discussed, the numbers are kind of misconstrued. So it was hard to get solid numbers on that. And so here's the statistic I wrote down from the Washington post article. We're thinking about the Amazon fires all wrong. Uh, these maps show Y by Sergio. Oh, his last name got wiped out on my rocket book. And so it says it takes 25% of the carbon dioxide absorbed by the world's forest. As I mentioned earlier, Gehr false scenario. Um, he's wily, blamed for his policies that exacerbate the problem. And so he's cut the budget for Brazil's EPA by nearly 24% and fired several employees. And, um, this is by far Brazil's biggest domestic and international crisis. So some people have offered to intervene and offer their, their assistance, one being the French president, but also Germany in Norway. And so Germany and Norway were some of the first to offer financial assistance, um, equaling to about$72 million. So when they found out ball scenario was going to give some of that money to the soy farmers and car for car farmers, cow farmers, they retracted that money because they didn't want it going to the farmers and they wanted it to go to the fighting of the fires, which is ironic because that is who has the most to gain from these fires. So I think it's interesting that, that they pulled out, given those circumstances, I don't know the full situation obviously, but, um, and then the French president offered the G seven summit, I'm sorry, offered$20 million pay for fighting the fires. But the European union and China get a lot of their agricultural imports from Brazil. So maybe one of the things they need to start considering is how cheap they get their produce for. Cause as we explored in the agricultural episode, you know, it increasing the cost of produce can be devastating for certain areas, but decreasing the cost of produce doesn't have that much into, in fact, like people don't increase how much, how many vegetables are eating because it's cheaper. And also the cost of produce has not gone up like since the 80s. So, and you can find that all in that our agricultural episode, which, which episode was that? Three there's two. Two, okay. Yeah, it's one of our first episodes. So Bolivian president Evo Miralis suggested that international commitment wasn't enough. Quite frankly, I kind of agree. Um, he said, I appreciate the small, very small contribution of the[inaudible]. He's like, that's not aide. Uh, it is a part of a shared responsibility of which we all have an obligation. So how both scenario is handling, this is a prime example of nationalism and how it's increasingly hand handling international responses to global challenges such as climate change. And this was quoted by Maurecio, sir Santura. I don't, I'm probably butchering that. He's a professor of international relations at the state university of Rio de Janeiro and he said this new polarization between nationalism and globalism is playing out in, in Brazil in the same way it's playing out in the U S and Europe. If you want to get access to international markets, you have to follow international rules. It's a trade off between nationalism and globalism. So that's just all something to keep in mind. And to be honest with you, I, I do kind of see where ball scenario is coming from with wanting to have the best interests of, with wanting to have the best interests of soy farmers and cow farmers. But it's unfortunate that is at the expense of something, a global resource only they have access to and other countries in South America. So I mean, I could definitely see how ball scenario would want to appease the farmers, but it's seems like they're getting a lot of money anyway. So yeah, trumping the best. But I could be wrong, I could be wrong.

Speaker 1: 30:52

And from what I've read is the farmers that are profiting are the farmers that are associated to your big farms and not necessarily like your small local farms. Right. And as we also talked about, an agriculture is those small local farmers that are really going to put more into the local economy. Right. But those other things you have to think about when you're talking about the Amazon forces, you're not just using losing resources, but there are indigenous people who are living inside their yes. And you're displacing them. So it's not killing them. And I think both scenarios had some pretty, um, ignorant comments about those people. I don't have anything written down, but, uh, I'm pretty blatantly disregarding their wellbeing. I believe that. Um, but when it comes to wildfires, the main thing you should know is as smokey the bear says, only you can prevent forest fires. Um, cause smokey the bear actually turned 75 years old this year. Oh, snap. Um, and you can always follow the ABCs of smokey the bear, which is always be careful with fire.

Speaker 3: 32:08

That takes me back to like the bachelor. This last year there was like this guy named cam and he was like ABC. He's like always became him, but he was kind of an actress. Yeah, she's, yeah. So on that note, I think that concludes today's episode. So you can, for more information you can find us on Facebook at Y blank matters. And Instagram and Twitter at Y underscore underscore matters. And, um, until next time, see you next week.[inaudible].