Monday, December 6, 2010

Northern Wildfires



Fires in the Alaskan interior, an area as big as 18.5 million hectares have been more severe than in the past 10 years. This is causing large amounts of carbon to be released into the atmosphere. This fact is startling because half the world's soil carbon is locked within the northern permafrost and peat land soils. This increase in carbon could lead to a runaway in rising climate changes. The increased fires are also considered a health risk, causing respiratory problems. Rescue centers are watching the fires and are pursuing many of them and extinguishing them to try and keep from releasing even more carbon. I think everyone should be conscience of these fires and do their part in helping the environment in every small way possible. Sure we wont see a change right now, but maybe we can keep our world a little cleaner.

7 comments:

  1. i can totally see your point in the harm. But didnt we talk in class about how fires were the natural order of things and that they're necessary. So im wondering if you mean that this is too much fire. If so what caused it to be so much?

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  2. I agree with Matt, if this is a natural fire but it is more severe than other years isn't this all just part of nature? If not, has the season been abnormally dry? Has the Alaskan government done anything to control hear fires if they are such a risk?

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  3. I almost did something on this too! It's because of an increase in the warmth and it is a bad thing because of all the carbon being released.

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  4. This is shocking to hear that it could be as big as 18.5 million acres. I also agree with matt. I also wonder if they will be able to get this under control anytime soon. If we don't I wonder what other effects of the fire will be. Also will people have to move away and find new homes due to the fact it can be harmful?

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  5. Well the thing is, it's abnormally high and it's not part of the cycle at all. The ground is supposed to be frozen, but due to an increase in the fires the carbon is being released from the premafrost and such and this is not good at all!

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  6. I agree with matt, fires are a natural way of cleaning things up, but there are also some harms that come from natural fires such as the abnormally high amount of carbon being released.

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