Wildland fires, climate change and society
4th World Conference on CLIMATE CHANGE
October 19-21, 2017 | Rome, Italy
https://www.omicsonline.org/proceedings/wildland-fires-climate-change-and-society-76335.html
| Jaime Senabre |
| University of Alicante, Spain |
| ScientificTracks Abstracts: J Earth Sci Clim Change |
| DOI: 10.4172/2157-7617-C1-036 |
Abstract |
| Wildland fires are an environmental problem in which many factors
influence, but they also represent a natural process in many ecosystems
and an evolutionary opportunity. Each ecosystem has a characteristic
fire regime (frequency level, size, intensity and seasonality
determined) that is considered as natural and necessary for the
maintenance of the sustainability and biodiversity of the species. From
Environmental Psychology we consider it as a latent risk that can
compromise the socioeconomic development of future generations, mainly
in rural areas. At the ecological level, the problem of forest fires
arises when the balance between what is considered as "natural" and
sustainable is broken. In Europe, there have been 2.5 million fires that
have devastated 20 million hectares in the last 25 years (Legido et
al., 2016), 70% of them in southern European countries and 51% in The
Iberian Peninsula. The current forest fire regime is likely to change
due to its relation to the climate. The rainfall regime is also
changing, with a decrease in water availability and an increase in
drought periods, especially in Mediterranean countries. This change will
not compensate for the increase in temperature and will increase the
flammability of forest areas. But we should not make generalizations
about the consequences of climate change, since this alone does not
generate or generate a greater number of forest fires on the planet;
Although this trend of change may facilitate conditions and favor more
virulent and large fire scenarios, so it should be considered as a
physical facilitator more in the universe of the problem. From a causal
and social view of the problem, omitting the role of "the human"
(anthropogenic variables) in the probability of occurrence of forest
fires would pose the problem in a partial way and would be exaggerating
the protagonism granted to other types of factors more difficult
control. The human being should be the centerpiece of analysis and
evaluation, since it is the main detonator of the forest fires. The real
"change" we should not look for in the climate or in other external
aspects, but in the possibility of a change of thought and attitude of
the human being with respect to the latent risk of forest fires. |
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