Burning Up: How Climate Crisis is Costing Livelihoods and the Planet’s Future

“To err is human, to persist in error is diabolical.” - Georges Canguilhem?

It was following a week of a national holiday that the news broke out. Many people had just returned from their vacation from the heavenly coastal towns of Turkey.

I, too, had spent a few days away from the city, in beautiful Bodrum, spending time with my family and friends. Even then you could feel the extreme heat.

Those heavenly towns are now fighting raging wildfires, and the Mediterranean waves are now reddened, reflecting the color of the flames.

In the final days of July, wildfires broke out in the coastal towns of Turkey—Marmaris, Bodrum, Manavgat and others. Over 100 wildfires were recorded in a span of days. As intervention was delayed and human fallacy dominated, the fires raged on and on, reaching heights that were no longer manageable.?

An overwhelming sense of grief spread across the country. People were desperate to help but were unable to do so. Nationwide campaigns were kicked off, donations flooded, municipal forces of the country's largest cities directed their fire and medical staff to support the local communities.

As Turkey struggled to breathe over the flames, over 800 wildfires were recorded in Italy as resort towns were being evacuated. Greece and Spain witnessed temperatures above 40C, with fires picking up, forcing the evacuation of citizens and tourists alike. The whole Mediterranean, once home to bounty and magic, was slowly falling victim to an unimaginable pain and widespread destruction.

The climate crisis fans the flames

The fires that broke out in over 35 provinces in Turkey had many causes, including human error. Accidents caused by humans start 80 percent of the wildfires in the United States. Whether by carelessness or by conflict, people are an extraordinarily significant factor in the origins of wildfires.

Now, many of these landscapes, where fires are frequent, have ways of mending themselves. Some trees actually need fires to create a lifecycle and give way to new trees. The eucalyptus tree, for example, needs fire to clear the resin around the seed. Regional plants are often prepared and capable of handling wildfires without damaging the natural rhythm of the ecosystem.

The main issue here isn’t the fires themselves, but their intensity and frequency—both of which are increasing. And there is one apparent reason behind the constant increase: the climate crisis.

When fires start often and spread fast, firefighters and other officials are rendered desperate in their efforts to control the flames. Certain ecosystems fail to renew themselves, and species that cannot be replaced in hundred years are lost.

Even if you have the latest tech, there is one thing you can’t buy: time.

The wildfires that began in Australia in 2019 killed at least 34 people, an estimated three billion animals, and scorched 46 million acres. The impact was so brutal that the country named the era the “Black Summer.”

According to U.S. officials, 90 large fires are currently burning in 12 states, and have already destroyed 1.8 million acres in 12 states. In October of last year, the U.S. recorded its first “gigafire” that burned over one million acres in California.

One of the most notoriously cold places in the world, Siberia, recently saw intense wildfires - so intense that the smoke even reached the North Pole.

For Europe, 2020 was one of the three warmest years ever recorded and globally the warmest on record. It is no surprise that Turkey is now witnessing the worst wildfires in its history- nearly 95,000 hectares have been devastated by the flames so far this year. That number used to average around 13,516 between 2008 to 2020.

Action needs to meet policy

The climate impact contributes to wildfires by drying up organic matter in the forests—which is how fires spread from tree to tree. As heat rises, the drying speeds up, and the forestry becomes more and more ideal for the fast spread of wildfires.?

The United Nations data reveals that in case of a 1.5C raise in global temperatures, there will be a 41% increase in the area of wildfires in the Mediterranean. If that goes up to 2C, the area burned by wildfires in the region increases by 62%. If the global temperature rise reaches 3C, the area burned by wildfires in the Mediterranean will increase by 97%.

Considering how we are struggling to control the fires now; these numbers will go far and beyond anything human efforts can handle.

The key here is to focus on the factors that we can control, and believe me, when I tell you, the climate crisis is one of those factors that lie within our reach. But to reach our goals, we need to intensify our efforts, work up international commitments and perhaps most significantly rely on climate science.

Sadly, there is not a single climate effort that can lighten the risk of wildfires. The climate crisis is a battle we need to fight on all fronts without losing drive or commitment.

We need to act quickly on pledges made by the Paris Agreement and give up on pushing our targets to 2050. We must start recording severe emission cuts—now.

Public and private actors need to take part in transformational efforts that will rewrite how we produce, service and operate. This is not an easy task: we need trillions of dollars in investment and hundreds in policy changes.

I have been advocating for sustainable business for some time now, and though we have achieved some wonderful things, there is still a lot that needs to be done. This will take money, innovation, partnerships, and an undying, relentless commitment to these ideals.

A spokeswoman for the firefighting efforts in the United States recently said that with the dryness of the land, “we are going to need Mother Nature’s help” to fully contain the fires.

We can’t keep making mistakes and expect nature to pick up the tabs. We need to learn how to work with nature—not against it.

Yes, we erred. It’s time we make amends.