By Minjae Kang
On Aug. 16, a thunderstorm from the Pacific formed above Santa Clara, Alameda and other local counties. According to the California Fire Department, lightning struck more than 12,000 times in a 72-hour period. The lightning ignited sparks on dry foliage and trees, causing multiple wildfires.
Even though California has experienced many fires, this fire couldn’t be controlled in a short period of time. Countless locations in California were placed under evacuation orders after the size of the fire quadrupled in just a day. According to California Governor Gavin Newsom, 376 fires were raging through fields and mountains as of Aug. 19, making it difficult for the fire department to focus on a specific region.
The Santa Clara Unit and the Lake-Napa Unit complex fires became the second and third largest fires in California’s history, with almost 2,100 buildings destroyed and seven people killed. The Insurance Information Institute states that in 2018, the Carr and Camp fires burned through more than 300,000 acres of land and killed nearly a 100 people. A year before that, in 2017, a fire in Santa Barbara destroyed approximately two thousand buildings and killed 23 people.
Biology teacher Lora Lerner believes that the increase of fires in the last couple of years, combined with the rapid spread of fires, was more than simply bad luck. Lerner points to climate change as the primary cause of the disastrous wildfires.
“California is already somewhat prone to wildfires,” Lerner said. “But because of the changes in the climate, it increases the risk of it being hotter, it increases the risk of being drier and it increases the risk of certain kinds of natural disasters. So that when you start to increase all these risks, the overall chance of us having big fires is definitely higher.”
Sophomore Maxwell Ready, who has lived in California his whole life and in Cupertino for the last five years, says he has noticed the effects of climate change.
“Immediately after moving to Cupertino, I noticed things got a lot hotter,” Ready said. “It's pretty annoying how dry seasons are getting a lot more intense. As we’ve noticed, rain doesn’t do much, so that’s my biggest concern.”
By passing laws to reduce greenhouse gases and increase renewable energy, California residents have attempted to mitigate climate change. However, due to dry temperatures, a shortage of rains and abundant heat waves, California has been in a condition where a large wildfire could easily start. Bill Martin, the Head Chief Meteorologist of Fox News, believes that the recent fires were inevitable.
“The hurricane from the West Coast, infused with moisture from our warming planet, was able to drift to a latitude that it normally won’t be found, which was us,” Martin said. “Basically everything is dry, fuel moistures are way down, so when the hurricane met 90 degrees surface temperature and the fire started, everything exploded.”
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, California’s average temperature rose nearly three degrees in the last century, and is currently rising at a steady pace. Every year, California is setting a new record for the highest temperature ever recorded. If climate change continues to affect California, The Yale Center for Environmental Communication states that the average temperature will reach 75 degrees Fahrenheit before 2050 and most of northern California will become vulnerable to massive wildfires. Martin predicts that severe consequences will follow if climate change continues to get worse.
“With climate change will come these extremes,” Martin said. “We're going to have to do brownouts, which means that power is going to shut down. Now for us, that's sort of a drag, but for old people and hospitals, it's really an issue. A couple more big fires, a 10 year drought, everything's going to change. And it's just sad that we're taking so long to do it, because we're waiting for it to get to the point where we have no choice but to change.”
However, science organizations such as NASA still believe there is a chance to mitigate the impact of climate change. According to NASA, slowing down climate change will require far more than individual efforts. Lerner says that a regional effort, along with globally coordinated responses will be ideal in avoiding the worst effects of climate change.
“By taking the right measures, we can slow climate change down, so it will hurt people less in the future,” Lerner said. “That's going to take a big commitment of resources. But we can potentially do that right by reducing our carbon emissions and investing in more resources. No, we can't stop climate change. But we can certainly mitigate both the pace and the severity.”
According to NASA, recycling, fuel-efficient cars and less industrial waste will also help in reducing the consequences of the changing climate. Lerner, however, believes that one of the most important factors in fighting climate change is being aware of the problems that people are causing to California’s environment.
“I think it's so easy for people to think the fires are over, and we don’t have to worry about them anymore,” Lerner said. “But I think we need to get people to understand these connections, that the choices we make are connected to the quality of our lives. It’s also connected to whether we have to deal with the disasters. And if we can get people to understand those connections, we’ll be able to make better choices as individuals.”