Temple, J. (2020, August 22). Climate change is almost certainly fueling California’s massive fires. Retrieved November 14, 2020, from https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/08/20/1007478/california-wildfires-climate-change-heatwaves/ 

 

In an MIT Review, James Temple claims that climate change in fueling California’s massive fires. Thousands of lightning strikes have caused hundreds of fires across California, producing major clusters burning in the Bay Area. Temple talked to a few other directors and scientists who said that average daily highs for this time of year are now about 3 to 4 degrees F warmer than at the beginning of the 20th century. And how and additional 1.8 degrees F of warming increases the amount of lightning strikes by 12%. California’s heat creates conditions for intense wildfires that spread fast.

 

The article helps explain different reasons and perspectives for why California is experiencing these massive wildfires. But I agree that due to higher temperatures and lower precipitation levels, California’s risk for wildfires has increased significantly. I also agree with Friederike Otto, acting director of the University of Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, who communicated with James Temple, that the higher temperatures were also partly caused by human-induced climate change. We need to take better care of our environment so we can lower the risk of these wildfires. I think that we need to start cutting emissions significantly because if we don’t then the risks could double in the future. This is related to environmental science because by cutting down emissions, we would be helping our environment by not releasing bad gases into the air like from factories, cars, etc. And I believe that as humans just doing this simple task would benefit our environment and the climate undoubtedly.