2021-08-11 16:16:46
#ENVIRONMENT
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Wildfire rages Greece Greece is facing a ""natural disaster of unprecedented proportions,"" as 586 wildfires burn in ""all corners"" of the country.
Greece's second-largest island, Evia, has been at the center of the storm of fires that have ravaged the country and over half of the island has burned, according to local officials.
The fires have been devastating for Greeks who rely on the forests for their livelihood.
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Causes of wildfires Wildfires are essentially caused when dried vegetation is set aflame, most of the time by lightning strikes.
Other events may also cause wildfires that range from human-caused or natural.
Wildfires are often part of the natural ecological cycle in many areas of the world.
Intense wildfires create complex early seral forest habitats that have higher species diversity than an unburned old forest.
Wildfires are a cause of concern when they happen with such a frequency that the ecological system is not able to recover.
Similarly, wildfires in areas where wildfires are not common can cause widespread ecological changes.
Wildfires near habited areas can also cause large scale damage to property, life and resources.
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Climate Change and Wildfires Studies have shown that the increasing frequency of wildfires has been linked to the effects of climate change.
Heatwaves, droughts, climate variability such as El Niño, and regional weather patterns that have been affected due to rising global temperatures and have increased the risk of wildfires exponentially.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate change increases the likelihood of droughts, storms and other weather anomalies.
Those events that were once every 100 years are suddenly happening once every 10 years.
Based on the IPCC, we are moving towards an increasing frequency of fires, whether that’s forest fires or grassland fires – and many other dire consequences as well.
The US Department of Agriculture estimated that an average annual 1 degree C temperature increase would increase area burned per year by as much as 600 percent in some types of forests.
More fires would also mean more greenhouse gasses emitted into the atmosphere, which in turn would lead to higher temperatures and subsequently, more wildfires.
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