Wildfires in the United States written by Michelle Bishka Over the course of the past few decades, wildfires have generally increased in quantity and worsened in effects, particularly in the United States. The trend of climate change, particularly the warming and drying out of environments, has created favorable arid conditions for wildfires to start and spread, lengthening fire season. The spike in wildfires contributes to climate change, creating a positive feedback loop between the two. Substantial amounts of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and methane are released into the atmosphere during a wildfire. These greenhouse gases further contribute to climate change, a wildfire instigator.
As of September 18th, 2021, a wildfire has reached California’s Giant Forest, threatening its giant sequoias. The outcome of this fire may mimic that of the California Castle Fire of 2020, which killed 10% of the world’s grown sequoias. Though ecosystems can benefit from the nutrients released from fires and recover from them due to their built-in resilience, if wildfires occur so frequently that the ecosystem does not have enough time to recover, it can collapse as a result. Because wildfires are happening at increased rates, it is not shocking that the rate of ecosystems falling would, too, increase.
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