Tuesday, October 22, 2013

The Wild Side of Wild Fires




http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/05/business/energy-environment/wildfires-and-climate-change.html


The article Wildfires and Climate Change by Kate Galbraith can be found on NYTimes.com on September 4th, 2013.

Climate change is something we hear a lot, and is a common environmental issue.  What we do not realize is that it is leading to serious things such as forest fires.  People polluting our environment affects climate change, and the climate changing in certain areas trigger forest fires and other disasters.  As the climate gets warmer, the land gets dehydrated and is more likely to have a blazing fire if sparked.

  As Galbraith explains, "There have always been forest fires, of course. But their patterns are changing because of people."  Because of these people who carelessly litter and pollute the air to increase climate change, people are losing their lives and homes in dangerous forest fires.

The huge wild fire that happened at Yosemite national park this summer, was one that is unforgettable because of how much damage it caused and how many lives were lost.  This made me as well as many others wonder what affects this fire and others like it will have on the environment.  Habitats can be burned down such as trees and bushes and the population of most animals that live in the forest can decrease.  Not only can these things happen with one fire, but if these become the norm due to climate change, food chains and ecosystems can be affected permanently. 

There are no apposing views in the article, but in this case, it is humans vs. nature.  Most humans are un-aware of what they are doing to the environment.  In my opinion, littering and polluting the environment is not worth the increasing temperatures and higher risk of forest fires.  As stated in the article, "Increasing incursions by humans into forests, coupled with altered forest ecology and climate change, will make fires bigger and more destructive, with implications for air quality as well as homes and infrastructure." 

This pushes me to think, what would happen if it got worse?  What can us humans do to prevent forest fires and climate change to happen?  Everyone should make an effort to throw things away instead of polluting.  Other things that humans can do to prevent wild fires is to put out their camp fires completely, and even stop themselves from throwing their cigarettes outside.  Wild fires bring about change in multiple eco systems as well as climate change.  These climate changes can also increase these incidents of wild fires.  We should not only be aware of the short term devastations of these wildfires, but also the long term changes to habitat and temperature.
wildfire-blm4.jpg
science.howstuffworks.com

4 comments:

  1. Great use of an anaphora in your title. The summary is effective, relaying information about the article and about the devastating events that occurred in Yosemite National Park. The voice is clear in your article, and it is clear that you feel that we should clean up both our act and our environment. Grammar and spelling were inaccurate, but the article was fairly legible. Overall, good article choice and it was written with care and thought.

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  2. I thought that your writing was well written and you did a very good job.I really enjoyed how you introduced your quotes. You also backed them up and gave evidence and explained your reasoning. You put a lot of effort into your writing and had good well thought out ideas. The piece flowed very smoothly and it was very good. Great job!

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  3. I think you did a great job explaining your article!!!! I thought your summary was very informative of the article and explained a lot about these catastrophe. I find it very weird that many of the disastrous event that happen on earth is because of us. Because we don't save energy, or recycle and pollute everywhere, we are affecting the earth. The earth provides us a home, we shouldn't be tearing it down bit by bit. I really like how you merged your opinions with the facts because it made the voice of the response seem strong and positive. I also agree with when you say its human vs. nature because its true. In conclusion, I think your article was well written and your opinions were strong!

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  4. I really like how your writing was very clear and easy to understand. I liked how you incorporated your opinion into the blog. I agree with your opinion, and I think we need to take forest fires more seriously. Your blog post is very persuasive and I think many people will agree with your thoughts.You backed up your quotes and introduced them very well. I can tell you but a lot of effort into this! Great job!

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