Skip to main content

Extreme wildfire events will intensify; Australia and US most at risk (downtoearth,)

Extreme wildfire events are inevitable in flammable biomes, and climate change is likely to increase their frequency and global occurrence, especially in Australia and the Mediterranean. According to a collaborative study by the researchers from the University of Tasmania, University of Idaho and South Dakota State University, the world has to brace for increasingly dangerous fire events.

Led by David Bowman, professor of Environmental Change Biology at the University of Tasmania, the study compiled a global satellite database of the intensity of 23 million landscape fires that took place between 2002 and 2013.

Of the 23 million fires, researchers zeroed in on 478 of the most extreme wildfire events and discovered that “economically or socially disastrous” wildfires are concentrated in suburban areas intermixed with flammable forest in the developed world.

One of the most important findings of the study is the low risk of fire disasters in the Mediterranean as compared to the climatically similar regions in the western United States and southeastern Australia. It indicated that regional land use can significantly reduce the occurrence of fire disasters. According to Bowman, "Extreme fire events are a global and natural phenomenon, particularly in forested areas that have pronounced dry seasons."

The overall increase in extreme wildfires is linked to climate change as global temperatures continue to rise in areas that were already prone to fires.

US most at risk

Of the top 478 events, 144 economically and socially disastrous extreme fire events were concentrated in “flammable-forested biomes of the western United States and southeastern Australia”. Using climate change model projections, the researchers suggested an increase in number of days witnessing extreme wildfire events by 20 to 50 per cent in these disaster-prone landscapes. The study predicted extreme fires in the future for Australia's east coast and the Mediterranean region –France, Greece, Portugal, Spain and Turkey.

Interestingly, the US experienced a much higher proportion of fire events turning into disasters than any other country in the study. Wildfire burned over 10 million acres of land in the US in 2015 and cost to tackle it was over US$2 billion.

Significance of the study

Dispelling the myth that all large fires are disasters and that there is nothing one can do about it; the study observes that the potential for fire disasters can be reduced, especially in the western US, by “reducing forest density and improving mitigation and preparedness through the development of fire-resilient communities."

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

NGT terminates chairmen of pollution control boards in 10 states (downtoearth,)

Cracking the whip on 10 State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) for ad-hoc appointments, the National Green Tribunal has ordered the termination of Chairpersons of these regulatory authorities. The concerned states are Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Rajasthan, Telangana, Haryana, Maharashtra and Manipur. The order was given last week by the principal bench of the NGT, chaired by Justice Swatanter Kumar. The recent order of June 8, 2017, comes as a follow-up to an NGT judgment given in August 2016. In that judgment, the NGT had issued directions on appointments of Chairmen and Member Secretaries of the SPCBs, emphasising on crucial roles they have in pollution control and abatement. It then specified required qualifications as well as tenure of the authorities. States were required to act on the orders within three months and frame Rules for appointment [See Box: Highlights of the NGT judgment of 2016 on criteria for SPCB chairperson appointment]. Having ...

High dose of Vitamin C and B3 can kill colon cancer cells: study (downtoearth)

In a first, a team of researchers has found that high doses of Vitamin C and niacin or Vitamin B3 can kill cancer stem cells. A study published in Cell Biology International showed the opposing effects of low and high dose of vitamin C and vitamin B3 on colon cancer stem cells. Led by Bipasha Bose and Sudheer Shenoy, the team found that while low doses (5-25 micromolar) of Vitamin C and B3 proliferate colon cancer stem cells, high doses (100 to 1,000 micromolar) killed cancer stem cells. Such high doses of vitamins can only be achieved through intravenous injections in colon cancer patients. The third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, colon cancer can be prevented by an intake of dietary fibre and lifestyle changes. While the next step of the researchers is to delineate the mechanisms involved in such opposing effects, they also hope to establish a therapeutic dose of Vitamin C and B3 for colon cancer stem cell therapy. “If the therapeutic dose gets validated under in vivo...

SC asks Centre to strike a balance on Rohingya issue (.hindu)

Supreme Court orally indicates that the government should not deport Rohingya “now” as the Centre prevails over it to not record any such views in its formal order, citing “international ramifications”. The Supreme Court on Friday came close to ordering the government not to deport the Rohingya. It finally settled on merely observing that a balance should be struck between humanitarian concern for the community and the country's national security and economic interests. The court was hearing a bunch of petitions, one filed by persons within the Rohingya community, against a proposed move to deport over 40,000 Rohingya refugees. A three-judge Bench, led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, began by orally indicating that the government should not deport Rohingya “now”, but the government prevailed on the court to not pass any formal order, citing “international ramifications”. With this, the status quo continues even though the court gave the community liberty to approach i...