In my conclusion, I learned as the number of fires increases and the area burned turns out to be more important, it becomes more worrying because exposure to particulates and gasses associated with smoke from wildfires entering cities can lead to people being hospitalized and even premature death. Pollutants emanating from smoke from forest fires always have a greater impact on locations where the smoke is blown by the wind and cause increased ozone concentrations. Therefore, there is increasing evidence that global climate change is spreading fires across the world. Globally, the length of the fire season increased by almost 19% due to long periods of hot, dry weather. Despite the fact that environmental factors have a great influence on all this, as citizens we still have a social responsibility to do everything possible and prevent these tragedies from happening. The increased risk of fires means that we must change the way we manage them. An efficient rural and forest fire policy needs a greater financial boost from governments for more efficient prevention and surveillance plans to be developed.
Author: Nandita Chowdhury
A wildfire is an unexpected, large, and destructive fire that burns over a wilderness or rural area such as forest, grassland, prairie, brushland or land sown to crops. They can cause injuries or death to people and animals. Unlike other types of fires, it spreads very quickly across wide areas, changes direction suddenly, and can overcome large obstacles like rivers and roads. They have great destructive power.
Although the immediate causes that give rise to wildfires can be very varied, in all of them the same assumptions are made, that is, the existence of large masses of vegetation in concurrence with more or less prolonged periods of drought. The solar heat causes dehydration in the plants, which recover the lost water from the substrate. However, when the soil moisture drops below 30%, the plants are unable to obtain water from the soil, which gradually dries them up. This process initiates the emission into the atmosphere of ethylene, a chemical compound present in vegetation and extremely combustible. But then, a double phenomenon occurs, both the plants and the air that surrounds them turns out to be easily flammable and multiplies the risk of fire. And if you add to these conditions the existence of periods of high temperatures and strong or moderate winds, the probability that a simple spark causes a fire becomes significant. On the other hand, regardless of whether the physical conditions are more or less favorable to a fire, it should be stated that, in the majority of cases, it is not natural causes that cause the fire, but human action, either intentionally or not.
Based on Bilal Rahmani’s “Chronicles of a Once Pessimistic College Freshman”, his intellectual home is associated with his college. Because he realized that college was the place for him to grow, learn, and shape himself into the person he had always wanted to be. This realization did not happen straight away; there were some certain activities that led him to this. In the beginning, he cultivated the thought that everyone was apathetic just like him, and the institution was not good enough. Though he was a smart kid, he was also self-centered and prejudiced. During the English lecture, while they were discussing “Cat in the Rain,” by Ernest Hemingway, he believed his interpretation was the smartest, despite listening to everyone else’s. Then his peers started sharing their ideas, which were also as logical as his. That hit him, and he realized he was in an ocean of ideas and wisdom. He was beginning to retract his opinion about the educational institution as he understood its true values. Finally, he became more involved not only in-class activities but also in other extracurricular activities. He feels the adventure and the knowledge he is acquiring here will shape him into the person he has always wanted to be. That is why I believe that his college is his intellectual home.
