UN: Wildfires To Worsen Significantly

The past few years have brought some of the worst wildfires the world has ever seen. Between the United States, Australia, and Siberia, fires have eaten up millions of acres of land. Siberia’s 2021 fires alone burned more than all the others around the world combined, destroying more than 21 million acres of boreal forest — an area about the size of Serbia. And it’s only going to get worse, the United Nations said in a report released this week.

By 2100, experts predict that the number of wildfires will increase by 50 percent, the UN reported. They will become “more intense and more frequent, ravaging communities and ecosystems in their path.”

The consequences of this kind of devastation include the loss of countless animals. Almost 3 billion are estimated to have been killed or displaced in Australia’s 2019-2020 fires. The World Wildlife Fund estimatesthat this figure included 143 million mammals, 2.46 billion reptiles, 180 million birds, and 51 million frogs. Then there is the loss of flora, as is happening at an alarming rate in the Amazon. A study published in Nature found that, from 2001 to 2021, more than 25.4 million acres of the Amazon rainforest were degraded by fires.

Biodiversity is under threat everywhere, but especially in the world’s poorest countries, which are often missing needed conservation or fire prevention measures. Also, wildfires can destroy critical infrastructure that humans need to survive. For example, fires contaminate bodies of water used for drinking with sediments, algae-promoting nutrients, and heavy metals. Studies have found that the burning of forests can create and release a bevy of potentially toxic chemicals.

After a fire has burned out, the danger has not necessarily passed. Health hazards like respiratory and cardiovascular illness rise, particularly in the most vulnerable among us. Mental health plummets as people try to recover from the terrifying event. People living in poverty may not be able to rebuild the homes or lives they had before the catastrophe, leading to stress and anger. Domestic violence tends to increase during disasters, as it did during Hurricane Katrina, with men not knowing how to cope with the destruction, and support systems for women out of action.

“With an impact that extends for days, weeks and even years after the flames subside, they impede progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals and deepen social inequalities,” the UN report said.

The UN wants countries to invest more in fire risk reduction and collaborate with local communities. Along with these recommendations, the report said, there needs to be a stronger commitment to fight climate change — everywhere. As the world faces intensifying heat and droughts that lead to more intense wildfires, wildfires release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It’s a terrible, worsening cycle.

“Wildfires have been a part of the Earth’s ecosystem since there was plant material to burn,” Stuart Blanch, a conservation policy manager at the World Wildlife Fund-Australia, told NBC News in 2020. “We’re all adapted to a certain amount of disturbance. I can get a certain number of colds per year and be OK, but if I’m sick for eight months in a row, that’s really going to wear on me. That’s the same thing with an ecosystem.”

And, unfortunately, that’s the same thing with humanity.