Wildfires do occur in the natural
environment throughout the world. Wildfires occur seasonally in some parts of
the world. Wildfires are occurring in the United States of America as I type
this post, in California. Wildfires are occurring in Canada now. Wildfires
occur in Africa. Wildfires occur in the outback of Australia. In dry seasons grass do catch fire easily.
According to National Geographic
more than 100,000 wildfires clear four to five million acres of land in the
United States annually, and that is the United States alone. In Ghana a
technology called slash and burn which farmers use to clear land for farming do
sometimes cause wildfires.
A wildfire is an intense
uncontrollable fire that is violent and spreads quickly. Fire involves the
burning of materials which then takes the form of heat, light and smoke. Hence
wildfire burns vegetation, buildings etc. Wildfires are caused by either
natural factor or human factor.
The three things required to
cause wildfire according to firefighters are:
Fuel
Oxygen
Heat source
Fuel- Fuel is the medium which combines chemically with oxygen for
fire to occur. Examples of fuel are dry grass, wood, buildings, human beings
etc. I burn pruned vegetation from my garden in my backyard. When I prune the
plants I leave the pruned vegetation in the sun to dry before I burn it. Dry
fuel is easier to burn, by my experience.
Oxygen- Oxygen is derived from the air. Fuel combines chemically
with oxygen in the burning process to create wildfire or fire for that matter,
after a heat source is applied.
Heat Source- The heat source raises the temperature of the fuel to
cause the fire. Examples of heat sources are matches, cigarette butt, lighting,
fallen cables, camp fires, fire to flush out game from their holes etc.
EMISSIONS
Clearly wildfires are not palatable
because they leave in their trails destruction of life and property. The
natural environment also do get its share of destruction. To get a clearer
picture of the destruction we must know the substances wildfire emits into the natural
environment. I have earlier indicated that wildfire is burning of materials
that result in heat, light and smoke. On those basis I going to show the
substances released into the natural environment.
Heat- Heat is basically the amount of energy flowing from one body
of matter to another based on temperature differences. The heat that fire
generates cannot be seen but it can be felt. When I burn organic materials in
my backyard and I get close to the fire I feel the heat (high temperature) and
quickly step back. The intensity of heat depends on the intensity of the fire.
At certain high temperatures living and nonliving things can be destroyed.
Light- The light is the red/yellow tongues of the fire as a
contrast to the grey smoke. The light or flame (chemically) is basically made
up of carbon dioxide, oxygen, water vapor and nitrogen.
Smoke- From smoke the following substances are released into the
atmosphere: carbon dioxide, water vapor, particulate matter, hydrocarbons,
carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides etc. Kindly note that these substances are
greenhouse gases!
TOLL
From the preceding section I have indicated the
things fire emits into the natural environment. Almost all of them are greenhouse
gases. If you follow my posts you should know what greenhouse gases do to the
natural environment. Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere which causes
global warming resulting in climate change.
WAY OUT
I have indicated that the cause of wildfire
can be natural or man-made. Having noted the man-made causes which we have control
over, we should apply ourselves unrelentingly to avoid them at all cost, towards
the realization of a sustainable clean and balanced natural environment.
Comments
Post a Comment