The Danger of California Wildfires and How to Curb These Disasters

Emergency and Disaster Management: Climate Change: The Danger of California Wildfires and How to Curb These Disasters
Introduction
Dry vegetation, rising temperatures, and drought conditions significantly contribute to wildfires in California, which are deteriorated by the adverse consequences of climate change. For instance, in 2020, California experienced the worst season of wildfires in the history of the United States of America (USA). Notably, there were about 10,000 blazes that burned more than 4 million acres, accounting for over 4% of the land area in the state (Lai, 2021). Currently, California is renowned for its devastating wildfire seasons that occur from late summer to early autumn. In the last two decades, the wildfires have become increasingly more destructive and intense since they take longer to control, which leads to the destruction of the natural habitat of many animals and plants. The research proposal focuses on how climate change contributes to the prevalence of wildfires in California and what emergency management measures can be implemented by the federal, local, and state governments to combat these disasters.
Problem Statement
This research will examine whether the primary cause of wildfires in California is climate or not, and come up with possible solutions to prevent the high prevalence of this disaster. In particular, climate change has been proven to be a key factor that contributes to the increased prevalence of wildfires in California. For instance, California is said to be experiencing longer warmer seasons during summer, which makes the vegetation dry due to the lack of rainfall. On that note, dried vegetation serves as the kindling for forest fires.
The issue of wildfire appears to be getting out of hand, which is why something should be done to protect forests from this devastating catastrophe. Since 2020, there have been approximately 15,800 fires in California that have burned about 6 million acres of land (Bennett, 2021). About 12% of the wildfire ignitions worldwide occur naturally, such as lighting, and it is difficult to prevent. However, the actual problem is intentional or accidental human-caused ignitions that account for around 90% in California (Bennett, 2021). The common causes of fire ignitions include fireworks, unattended campfires, car fires, throwing burning cigarettes carelessly, arson, burning debris, and equipment malfunction, such as power lines, tractors, and trucks. As such, negligence is the significant challenge that lead to wildfire ignitions in California, and which can be prevented by implementing proper measures.
From the look of things, the latest wildfires in California are more devastating than what used to be experienced in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The following figure shows the comparison of wildfire's magnitude in the past and currently.
Figure 1
The High Prevalence and Detrimental Effects of Wildfires in California
(Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148908/whats-behind-californias-surge-of-large-fires)
Figure 1 depicts the total area affected by wildfires in California, and the average size of these fires has been increasing. Idaho State University’s remote sensing ecologist, Keith Weber, who is also a principal investigator of NASA’s Earth Science Applied Science Program called the Historic Fires Database, said that between 2010 and 2020, California’s wildfires have burned about 11% of the state’s land surfaces (NASA Earth Observatory, 2021). The August fire of 2020 and Dixie fire of 2021 burned around 2 million acres of land, which is a larger land area than Rhode Island. The most devastating thing about recent California wildfires is that they take months to put off since they are big and spread faster due to dried vegetation. In the past half a decade, thirteen out of twenty most catastrophic and destructive wildfires have occurred in California.
In particular, a combination of specific factors has contributed to the surge of large and destructive wildfires in California. The increasing heat and drying of vegetation exacerbated by the changing climate, the rapid increase of population along the edges of California forests, and unusual drought are some of the aspects causing the prevalence of wildfires (NASA Earth Observatory, 2021). When these catastrophic incidents occur, they not only destroy trees, vegetation, power infrastructure, buildings, and roads, but they also lead to the loss of lives. That is why solutions are needed urgently to curb such damages and reduce the magnitude of these wildfires, which has been increasing recently.
Although climate change is a primary factor that leads to the high prevalence of wildfires in California, individuals cannot just observe these disasters happening now and then and still do nothing about it. The time for a change is now. For instance, since over 80% of wildfire ignitions are caused by humans, the federal, local, and state governments should introduce measures to regulate who can access these forests. Whenever machinery is required to perform tasks in the forests, there should be standby fire extinguishers ready to suppress accidental fires that might occur. In addition, the government should determine areas that are safe for camping and relocate the population residing along the edges of California forests. As such, these measures will help to decrease the causes of wildfire ignitions and the destruction that might occur if such incidents occur.
Need for the Study
This research project is essential and should be approved and funded. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDFFP) has been surprised by the increased wildfire incidents in the region. For instance, the Caldor Fire spread to over 207,000 acres, an area bigger than New York City (Irfan, 2021). The wind contributes to the faster spread of wildfire, particularly when the vegetation is dry. In that light, this project will use a mixed research method, qualitative and quantitative, to suggest the most effective measures to combat wildfires in California. For sure, it is challenging to eliminate wildfires since some factors contributing to the disaster are natural and beyond human control. However, it is possible to reduce the causes of ignitions, which in most cases occur due to negligence. For example, it is not surprising that negating the adverse impacts of climate change can take many years. But individuals should stop starting fires in forests while camping or throwing burning cigarettes carelessly.
The data for my research will come from various sources, including the CDFFP, Earth.org, Google Scholar, EBSCOhost, and other renowned scholarly databases. The data analysis will relate to the problem at hand. For example, suggested solutions will come from peer-reviewed sources. That way, it would be possible to get evidence-based recommendations, which are things that have been tested and approved. The research design used will be descriptive to show how proposed solutions can be implemented successfully to address the existing problem. The best thing about using both qualitative and quantitative is that the statistics obtained can be supplemented by information, which makes it easy to understand how the prevalence of wildfires in California can be reduced. The worst-case scenario can occur if this research is not conducted. Imagine what will happen if the forest fire incidents in California are not minimized, it will lead to loss of lives, disruption of habitats, destruction of properties, drying of plants, extinction of flora and fauna species, and damage of power and road among other infrastructures. As a result, proper solutions are required now to ensure that wildfire incidents are minimized and prevented.
Target Audience
The results obtained after conducting this study will be beneficial to the CDFFP, policymakers in California, and environmentalist agencies within the region. Besides, the primary objective is to understand what causes these wildfires and prevent them. Although it is difficult to control climate change, it does not mean that fire incidents cannot be prevented. For instance, during summers when the vegetation has dried due to increased heat, people should not be allowed to camp in the forests. That way, the ignition arising from camping fires will be eliminated. The CDFFP should work closely with other relevant agencies to safeguard forests and ensure that only authorized individuals can access them. On that note, they can use surveillance cameras to monitor these forests and identify trespassers, who should be punished or penalized heavily. The issue of wildfire in California is an emergency and without coming up with strict measures, fire incidents and the associated adverse consequences will be the norm of the day.
Objectives of the Research
My research will accomplish various objectives. First, it will validate the existence of the wildfire problem in California, which needs to be addressed. Some individuals might not understand the effect of wildfires since they are not directly affected. However, those who have been influenced by these catastrophic incidents understand its adverse consequences and how preventing it might be crucial for the well-being of Californians. Second, the results of this study will be used to educate relevant stakeholders, such as the CDFFP, on how to prevent and control wildfires when it occurs. In addition, they will know how to combat the causes of fire ignitions that arise from negligence or ignorance. Since human-related factors contribute to over 80% of wildfires in California, it means that proper measures can be implemented to decrease or eradicate the causes of fire ignitions. The only thing that can be difficult to control is the natural causes of fire, such as lighting.
The other thing that my research will accomplish is to provide feasible solutions to minimize wildfire incidents in California. California has increasingly suffered from the high prevalence of wildfire incidents. For instance, from 2017 to 2018, the state-level fire suppression efforts used more than $1.6 billion and the losses from these incidents were approximately $40 billion. The power infrastructure was adversely affected, which made the electricity utility in the state implement “Public Safety Power Shut-Offs,” during fire incidents (Goss et al., 2020). That way, minimal damages to power infrastructures are encountered when wildfires occur. However, some areas experience disruptive power outages. On that note, providing effective solutions can reduce the incident of a disaster since proper preparation, mitigation, response, and recovery strategies are set in place. That is what California needs before the world joins hands to eliminate climate change, which is the biggest contributor to forest fire incidents in the state.
Hypothesis
H1: Climate change is a significant contributor to the increased prevalence of wildfire incidents in California.
Research Questions
RQ1: How has climate change contributed to increased wildfire incidents in California?
RQ2: How does the combination of factors arising from climate change and causes of fire ignitions make it challenging to prevent fire incidents?
RQ3: What should the federal, local, and state governments and other relevant stakeholders do to minimize wildfire incidents in California?
Literature Review
The study depicts how climate change contributes to the prevalence of wildfires in California and the emergency management measures that can be implemented by the federal, local, and state governments to combat these disasters. Specifically, extreme fire incidents have significant social, environmental, and economic effects. The uncertainty is whether such disasters are inevitable due to the changing climate or occur because of poor emergency planning and management (Bowman et al., 2017). In the last decade, California has suffered from increased wildfire incidents that have caused the destruction of properties and loss of lives. If the situation remains unaddressed, it means some fauna and flora species might become extinct due to the disruption of natural habitats. Besides, the long-term impacts of the increased prevalence of wildfires in California include making specific areas inhabitable, displacing populations from fire-prone areas, and economic retardation (Buechi et al., 2021). Already, California has experienced and has not recovered from the latest incidents of wildfires. The problem has deteriorated since the current wildfires are taking a long period to control, affecting many acres of land. Climate change has been proved to have contributed to the increasing prevalence and magnitude of forest fires since it causes vegetation to dry, making it easy to rekindle.
Williams et al. (2019) assert that the increased prevalence of California’s wildfires is due to the decreased moisture, extended periods of warm seasons, and reduced precipitation during summers (Williams et al., 2019). On that note, these researchers make it clear that climate change is a significant factor that has led to increased forest fire incidents in California. However, the confounding factors that make wildfires more destructive are poor fire and land management practices, human negligence, dry vegetation, and the spatial diversity of plants. The highly diverse California’s human settlement patterns, vegetation cover, and climate make it challenging to decrease fire incidents (Williams et al., 2019). For example, individuals dominate in wildfire regimes, contributing to the vast majority of human-caused fire ignitions. Schoennagel et al. (2017) depict that Californians should adapt to wildfires due to the effects of climate change (Schoennagel et al., 2017). The continued and longer warm seasons in North America have increasingly made plants dry. The ecosystem responds to increased heat by drying vegetation, which is a major factor that contributes to the high prevalence of forest fires. Furthermore, it becomes extremely challenging to control wildfires in California because the wind speed makes these fires spread faster since dry vegetation rekindles quickly.
In the past ten years, California has experienced a significant number of wildfires that range from 10,000 hectares to over 100,000 hectares, leading to massive damage to properties and loss of lives (Keeley & Syphard, 2021). The two years that the state has experienced larger fires are 2018 and 2020. Although the primary causes of fires are multiple, including natural factors, burning cigarette butts, c...