Our house is on fire - but why?

If you are following any news you may be aware of the recent wildfires that have broken out in the Amazon and are burning the forest at an unprecedented rate, so devastating that have been considered as an international emergency. 
To put it on  Greta Thunberg terms: our house is on fire


Literately

It only takes one look at this list of wild fires to notice that they are becoming more and more frequent. Remember California (with the most destructive all post 2000!), Greece (2000,2005, 2007, 2009, 2012, 2018) Portugal (2003, 2016, 2017,2018), Spain (2005, 2016, 2019) and even the unexpected fires in the UK (2011, 2018, 2018) Sweden (2014, 2018) and Siberia (just recently! 2019). These are just some examples (the list contains many more affected countries). But it 'jumps to the eyes' that the dates are mostly all recent, and the breaks in between getting shorter and shorter. Every summer there is at least one wildfire emergency. Every year we watch the news and are scared, appalled, preoccupied, sad.. We offer messages of condolescence to those who have lost their homes, some family members, we write great things on our social feeds, but like with many other things, we shortly just move on with the normal life and wait for the next big disaster. 
But we should perhaps stop instead and ponder over it for just a little bit longer. 
And so I did, stopped for a minute and decided to learn a little about the fires, and what are the relationships between fire and climate change. 
I have learnt a lot. 

1. Climate change does not directly cause fire. And it would be wrong and misleading to say this. But climate change is increasing the risk of fire
2. Moisture levels are to blame. In periods when it doesn’t rain heat accumulates as there is no water left to evaporate. Droughts are dangerous. This accumulation results in withering  plants , drying of soil and generally rising of temperatures. This is the main mechanism behind western us and Mediterranean climate fires. In other parts of the world this can also occur when when strong high pressure weather domes (anticyclones) stagnate, that can also occur with  La Niña or El Niño events ( which are also increasing in frequency and are influenced by climate change!) 
3. There is a feedback between fire and climate. Climate change might increase the risk of wildfires from the mechanisms described above, but fires themselves can contribute largely to climate change. Every large fire release huge amounts of CO2 in the environment, and as we know, CO2 is one of the gases that contributes to the 'greenhouse effect'

So, definitely don't make matter worse by throwing cigarette butts on the ground, careful with camp fires and stoves, never leave them unattended and be even extra mindful if it is a 'drought' period. 

I recommend that everyone should stop for a minute and try to do some thinking about this, about what we are doing to our planet and truly considering some actions right now that may reduce our impacts  (simple swaps, or more drastic lifestyle changes. Like the famous slogan #everylittlehelps) 

Find some sustainable tips here
The first (6) steps to limit your waste
Choose a sustainable diet

Some good books to start on :