Hannah Levenstein is originally from Madison ,WI. She goes to college in Redlands, CA at the University of Redlands where she is studying sociology and Spanish. She hopes to become a social worker.
As California’s air continues to be choked by noxious, ash-filled smoke, the relentless wildfires of the 2020 wildfire season refuse to quit, destroying 700,000 acres of unpopulated land across the Golden State. California has witnessed a consistent climb in length, spread, and lethality of its wildfires throughout the past half-decade, with distressingly few signs of stopping as heat waves, droughts, and high demand for electricity have created the perfect storm for a vicious collection of fire complexes. It is no question that these disastrous fires are directly linked to the planet's rapidly changing climate. Because climate change causes a continuous rise in temperature, locations prone to excessive heat have become berated with drier, hotter conditions that drastically increase wildfire risk.
According to research conducted through the CSSR, a one-degree Celsius annual increase in temperature could allow fires to destroy 600 percent more land per year. While there are many valiant and effective short-term solutions to alleviating the destructive nature of wildfires, scientists believe the key long-term initiative to weakening fire damage could be reducing carbon emissions and the subsequent rising temperatures that greenhouse gases cause. Citizens Climate Lobby has created a bipartisan bill that will impose an annually increasing tax on carbon emissions per ton (100% of which will then be distributed to households), that if passed, is projected to reduce United States carbon emissions by 90% by 2050.
With a world so full of disasters and destruction, taking a holistic and definitive measure to curb the uncompromising effects of wildfires should seem like an obvious step. I urge you to do research, contact your local congressperson, or share a link with a friend. Steps need to be taken. What are your feet doing?