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Essay / California Wildfires Worsening: Climate Change
Since 2000, fifteen of California's twenty largest wildfires have occurred, and six of the state's most destructive wildfires have occurred during of the last three years. The debate over the causes of these California wildfires has been a very controversial topic, with two very different explanations: climate change or poor forest management. Before leaving office, President Trump claimed that climate change was a hoax and that poor forest management and a lack of state action were causing California's wildfires, even threatening to suspend federal funding to the state. However, the federal government and families are the ones who own and manage most of the state's forests. Although poor forest management does contribute to the creation of California wildfires, scientific evidence shows that climate change is making them worse. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayClimate change has played a major role in worsening California wildfires. In a report done by the Environmental Protection Agency, they stated that the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is a direct result of the increasing temperature of our climate. The combination of rising temperatures and decreasing precipitation is likely to increase the severity, frequency and extent of wildfires. These conditions cause plants and soil to dry out. As a result, businesses suffer from reduced harvests and land burned dry. In addition to the climate becoming drier and warmer, climate change is causing a shift in the distribution of rainfall in California, resulting in more rain in winter and less in summer and spring. A short rainy season essentially leads to an extension of the annual wildfire season. With these hot, dry conditions, wildfires grew larger, spread faster, caused far more damage, and became very difficult to contain. Climate change is also causing a change in Santa Ana winds. Santa Ana winds are powerful, extremely dry downslope winds that form from high-pressure cool, dry air masses and affect coastal Southern California and northern Baja California. California's wildfire season associated with the Santa Ana winds has been pushed back to the winter months due to changing wind patterns. These fires in particular are very costly due to the speed with which they spread and their proximity to urban areas. According to a 2015 study, the area burned by Southern California wildfires will increase by 70% over the next 20 years due to hotter, drier and windier conditions brought on by global warming. Ultimately, experts believe human-caused global warming is making California's wildfires worse. A study conducted on the impact of climate change on wildfires found that human-caused global warming has doubled the area burned by wildfires in the western United States over the past 30 years. They believe that the only way to avoid the “effects of climate change” is to “slow global warming by abandoning fossil fuels as quickly as possible”. The truth is that more humanity causes global warming..