Forest Fires: Another Culprit in Climate Change?

¶ … Forest Fires: Another Culprit in Climate Change? Forest fires have always been menace to people's lives and properties. The threat becomes even more severe when these fires occur during the dry summer season since the containment of which becomes even more challenging. There are variable causes of forest fires from human-caused such as irresponsible campers building fires and unable to control the spread thereof to natural-causes such as during a lightning strike.

In the case of the forest fire in the Columbia River Gorge located west of Lyle, Washington, the fire started with a downed power line (The Oregonian 2010). More than likely, when the power line fell the sparks produced initiated the fire and the dried plants and trees where the power line fell caught fire. From there, the unthinkable Domino Effect ensued where a wildfire spread and "has burned about 1,200 acres of forest land. Fortunately, the fire has destroyed one structure but no homes.

(The Oregonian 2010)" Besides the downed power line causing the initial fire outbreak, additional factors contributed to the succeeding fires, "sustained winds of 20 mph and gusts as high as 50 mph started other fires (The Oregonian 2010)" that saw various firefighting organizations and several hundred firefighters coming together to control and stop the further devastation brought by the wildfires. Equally important aside from knowing the causes of forest fires is also understanding the effects thereof.

Most prevalent of course is the destruction of huge tracks of forest land and properties that are in the way of the onslaught. It is not unusual to see deaths of humans and animals alike from burning or even suffocation from the smoke. But one effect that has been postulated is the increase in green gas emissions which makes it a contributory factor in climate change and global warming.

The reason may seem logical because the appearance of voluminous smoke may indeed be indicative of strong green gas emissions that will further exacerbate the current dire conditions of climate change and global warming. However, the matter has been disproven with a research conducted by the Oregon State University.

The findings of the study states that "no indication that forest fire carbon emissions will become comparable to those caused by fossil fuel use (Oregon State University 2010)." The study also pointed out that there is a huge difference between forest fires and greenhouse emissions caused by humans. Fire events are episodic in nature while greenhouse gas emissions are continuous and increasing, climate change mitigation strategies focused on human-caused emissions will have more impact than those emphasizing wildfire, the researchers said (Oregon State University 2010).

With scientific proofs, statistics, and evidences backing their findings, no doubt what the researchers at Oregon State University have proven that forest fires do not effect climate change and global warming as profoundly as they were thought so previously. The issue whereby forest fires are major contributory factors to climate change and global warming has been an accepted truism because of the enormity of.