English Comp II Causes and Effects of Forest Fires Wildfires are caused by many different things. They can be sparked by lightening or human related activities. Regardless of their source of ignition, the effects of forest fires are both good and bad. As the monsoon season passes, vegetation from seasons past begins to dry out, raising the threat of forest fires. These fires have a variety of sources, such as man’s negligence, a natural occurrence like lightening, or an earthquake like the one that caused the San Francisco fire of 1906.
Major wildfires blaze across the country, putting towns, and hundreds of woodland homes at risk if a wildfire occurs near you, it may spread rapidly, and become a serious problem. If you are living or building on the edge of a wildland area, you need to prepare for the risk of wildfire. To better understand how to protect your home, it is important to know how fire behaves. Fire needs fuel and oxygen. To a wildfire, homes and other structures are forms of fuel, and the wind provides plenty of oxygen.
It also have some very harmful effects on humans and nature. It creates large amount of pollution, destroys the nature and also increases the diseases in human societies. As in documentary about “The Ethics of Fracking” by Marleen troy PhD (Environmental Engineer), Bernard Prausak and Rabbi Mordechai Liebling.
In the last century, many naturally occurring fires were put out immediately as rangers feared it would ruin the national park. However, this resulted in an incredible buildup of dead wood and undergrows that fueled catastrophic infernos. Today, the National Park firefighters manage and allow naturally occurring fires to burn or set controlled fires in order to maintain a balance. The Giant Sequoia trees are heavily dependent upon the fires as it needs fire to reproduce. When a fire burns, the heat opens up their seed cones which allows for their seeds to be released.
This course provides instruction about the primary factors affecting the start and spread of wildfires and recognition of potentially hazardous situations. Specifically, upon completion of S-190, employees will have the ability to spot out certain areas of caution along with the correct procedures on how to handle specific blazes. DEFINITIONS Surface Fire: Burns along the floor of the forest Ground Fire: Burns on or just above the forest floor Crown Fire: Winds move fire from tree top to tree top Flash Point: Temperature at which an object will burst into flames Fuel Load: The amount of flammable material that surrounds a fire Slope: The most important factor in topography as it relates to wildfire and can either aid or hinder wildfire progression TYPES OF
Fire Ants Invasive Species according to Delach 2011, are “plants, animals or other organisms that are introduced to a given area outside of their original range and cause harm in their new home.” Since they were brought into this new environment, they have no natural enemies to slow down and limit their reproduction, causing the species to spread uncontrollably. According to Delach 2011, Invasive Species are recognized as one of the leading threats to biodiversity and impose enormous cost to agriculture, forestry, fisheries and other human enterprises as well as human health. The Fire Ant is an invasive species that south America accidently introduced to Alabama in 1929 via a cargo ship that was carrying used soil as ballast (FireAnt.net 2005). According to University of Arkansas division of agriculture 2006, “red fire ants can have a positive and a negative impact on the environment and the life in it.” Of course, in the public’s opinion, fire ants are a big pain in the butt and “can only be considered negative” (University of Arkansas division of agriculture, 2006). Environmentally, a positive impact is “as generalist feeders, they can have more than one food source and other insects are their prey (University of Arkansas division of agriculture, 2006).
Waste and Energy Sandra Jenkins, William Matos, Tony Brown, Steve Olberding ENV/100 May 26, 2014 Jennifer Ott Waste and Energy Plastics and pesticides are both a type of waste. The former is considered a solid waste and the latter is a categorized as hazardous waste. Where do these wastes come from and what kind of effect do they have on the environment either when they are used or disposed of? Oil and natural gas are fossil fuels that emit their own waste once used. The effects of their use on the environment can be far reaching and detrimental to health of humans, animals, and other organisms that inhabit the earth.
Deforestation In Thailand Proposal Large areas of the world’s forest are being destroyed as you read this sentence. Volcanoes are erupting, floods are flooding and fires are burning; but with these occurrences the forest will emerge again to become what it once was. Unfortunately this is not the major reason that the forest are being depleted, Deforestation, the permanent loss of forestland, caused by humans is the main cause. With natural disasters the land is left to replenish itself but with deforestation the land becomes un-sustainable to forest life. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) “estimates that the annual rate of deforestation is about 1.3 million square km per decade, with the main deforestation occurring in the tropics where a wide variety of forest exist”.
Since we have the attention of everyone, now is the best time to take action against global warming. Due to the increasing temperatures every year our public health and our agriculture/food supply is at high risk for new and worse diseases due to global warming; we need to change our climate control policies to protect ourselves. Gases are being trapped inside of earth’s atmosphere like a soda can, and are gradually increasing Earth’s temperatures that ice will start melting and there will be flooding due to rising sea levels; plants and animals will start becoming endangered (as cited in Cooper, 2001). We have already seen coastal flooding in parts of Central America and Bermuda’s forests are now endangered due to flooding (as cited in Clemmitt, 2006). Global warming has been an issue since factories were introduced to this world; gases and toxins are being highly exposed into our atmosphere causing a tremendous reaction to the balance of nature.
How and why should we protect the rainforest? There are many reasons why we should protect rainforests. Firstly, I am going to talk about the problems affecting rainforests throughout the world. The most affected rainforest in the world is the Amazon Rainforest due to the deforestation happening. From an environmental perspective the Amazon is negatively affected from the burning of the trees which is polluting the biggest rainforest in the world with Carbon dioxide (Co2).