Climate Change Affecting California
September 29, 2021
Climate change has been affecting not only the world but specifically California. Due to the dramatic drop of greenhouse gases in the ozone layer of the atmosphere, climate change has been increasing dramatically; therefore, California has been affected by climate change for centuries. The climate change affecting California has been particularly in the form of wildfires. California has been faced with wildfires since 1878. Since the 1980s, the amount of wildfires in California has almost doubled.
In the past decades, the decrease in greenhouse gases resulted in four million acres of California being affected by wildfires. Due to the decrease in greenhouse gases, we can expect California, Oregon, and Washington’s area of wildfires to increase to around 78 percent by 2050.
Only actions by the government can help to reduce the climate change that has been affecting wildfires. These actions include disaster-resistant buildings and fuel treatments such as prescribed burns. Fuel treatments will help to maintain built-up vegetation that has built up and caused almost a century’s worth of wildfires.
The Government is playing a huge role in the climate change that is affecting wildfires in California. The federal government owns 57 percent of forests in California. The US Forest Services is trying to treat 500,000 acres of forest each year; however, this goal will most likely not prevail once there is limited funding in congress currently.
However, legislation is trying to pass a new bill that will guarantee 600 million dollars a year to fund prescribed burns for federal and private land that has been affected by wildfires.
Sacramento legislators have passed many bills to create more focus and attention on climate change affecting California wildfires. With support from California and US citizens, hopefully, this wildfire crisis will soon be resolved.
