Climate Change Effects in Southern California
In Southern California, a changing climate has had a significant effect on the landscape. Specifically, annual wildfires have become a more pressing issue in the area, partly due to climate change. Fire season was always a part of my life growing up. Since moving to the Midwest, I have learned to appreciate the four seasons as a part of my college life that everyone from the area is accustomed to. In Southern California, however, I grew up with two observable "seasons": the 50-week-long dry season and maybe a two-week rainy season on a particularly wet year. In the months of August, September, and October, Midwesterners prepare for leaves to fall and temperatures to cool while people in my hometown awaited the inevitable fires.
Although Southern California is a hot, dry location naturally, temperatures have been increasing steadily. Pictured below is a graph from the NOAA depicting the increase in average temperature to be about 3 degrees Fahrenheit from 1900 to 2015 (1).
(Source = NOAA)
Precipitation has also been scarce in Southern California. Currently, Southern California is experiencing its second major drought since the dawn of the 21st century (2). Fresh water has always been a scarce, and expensive necessity where I am from. I have vivid memories of driving down the 101 freeway towards Oxnard, an agricultural powerhouse in my area. I will always remember the signs I saw on this drive, saying "Is growing food a waste of water". Political tensions in the area caused water to be redirected from irrigation in agriculture to people's homes, where they continued to keep green grass lawns, and as I remember from working in the fields, farmers were not happy about this. A combination of rising temperature and extreme drought creates the perfect climate for intense wildfires.
The invasion of black mustard in the area also created a perfect source of tinder for these fires, driven by the dry Santa Ana winds, in this changing climate (3). This invasive thrives in warm climates and when it dries out due to the drought each year, a single spark can ignite an entire valley. Wildfires have gotten worse during my lifetime, burning more land area each year (4). I remember the first wildfire I witnessed when my family moved to California. It was a massive blaze, but nothing compared to the fires I saw as I got older, which brought about burnt backyards and annual evacuations. Instead of snow days, we had smoke days, and each year there were more smoke days from my memory. Wildfires are predicted to get more intense and destructive in the coming years due to climate change, so future generations in Southern California will probably have more smoke days than I ever had in high school.
Overall, climate change has had a visible effect on the disastrous wildfires in Southern California, effects that I personally witnessed each and every year of my childhood. As a global society, people and governments need to cut back on carbon emissions, in particular, to try and mitigate the effects of climate change for future generations. With all the talk of electric cars becoming the future in America, I hope our country strives to find an alternative source of energy to power these electric cars other than fossil fuels; electricity grids are still powered by fossil fuels for the most part in America. In Southern California, alternative, more sustainable energy options such as solar, wind, tidal, and nuclear power have promised to replace fossil fuels. I hope the government looks into these alternative energy sources to replace fossil fuels in an attempt to mitigate whatever climate effects are possible to mitigate so future generations are able to thrive.
My biggest takeaway from this course was how large of an effect our personal lives have on the environment in the Midwest. Everything from what we eat, where we grow our food, how we power our home, to what ecosystems we destroy to construct our communities has a major impact on the world around us. I found this course to be very grounding and reminded me to view ecosystems with a sort of reverence; I remembered that I am a part of something bigger than human society after this course. I also realized, that although humans and American development have completely changed the landscape of Wisconsin, it does not make the human species an evil one. I view it as our duty to learn from our mistakes and try to mitigate the ecosystem damages, like eutrophication or the introduction of invasive species, as much as we can.
References:
1. https://statesummaries.ncics.org/chapter/ca/
2. https://drought.ca.gov/current-drought-conditions/
3. https://www.nps.gov/samo/learn/news/a-superbloom-impersonator-invasive-weeds-cover-hillsides-in-fields-of-green-yellow.htm
4. https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/wildfires-climate-change
Hi Alexander! I can't imagine living somewhere where the 4 seasons are not so distinct. I have family around Colorado and I unfortunately can imagine what it's like to live somewhere with a risk of wildfire. Do you think that people that have lost property to fires are more likely to fight climate change? It seems like there is not a lot of resources shared with people showing how development continues to increase the risk of wild fires.
ReplyDeleteHey Alexander, I am also from California (San Francisco area). Your experience sounds really similar to mine, the billboards with agricultural lobbying really stick out to me too! Your mention of black mustard is interesting and is a cool link back to the concepts of this class. I never thought about invasives that might be helping contribute to the wildfires, I always assumed it was simply a product of it being warmer. It is definitely going to be interesting to see how the state adapts to increasing wildfires because they seem to be getting bigger and encroaching on the big cities.
ReplyDelete