The biggest impacts of climate change are well known. Melting glaciers, increasingly severe storms and changing habitat for species big and small are part of the common narrative surrounding warming temperatures.
But some effects are difficult to quantify or calculate and often will be overlooked — even as they touch our daily lives.
Take Monday afternoon in Vancouver. A series of brush fires (known as vegetation fires in the proper parlance) were sparked near populated neighborhoods in the Vancouver area. In two cases, they triggered evacuation warnings for nearby residents.
As reported by The Columbian, one fire was in the Burnt Bridge Creek Greenway under BPA power lines “and moved south toward a series of houses perched above the greenway on Northeast 16th Street.” The second, in the Minnehaha area, “spread to a shop building on a neighboring property and spread to trees adjacent to a densely packed duplex neighborhood.”
No injuries were reported and damage was limited. We don’t know the cause of the blazes, and we do know that brush fires were a fact of life long before anybody was aware of climate change. But such conflagrations are likely to become more common.
As a 2021 study from the Czech Republic found: “With rising temperatures and decreasing soil water, the frequency of vegetation fires is increasing globally. … The main reason for the statistically significant increase in the frequency of vegetation fires is the ongoing climate change, manifested by an increase in values of the Fire Danger Index and heat wave occurrence.”
The authors found that in all regions under the study, “extreme occurrences of vegetation fires were due to a combination of drought and heat waves.”
The factors that lead to an increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires also affect urban areas, albeit on a smaller scale. As the Environmental Defense Fund writes: “Hotter temperatures evaporate more moisture from soil and vegetation, drying out trees, shrubs and grasses and turning leaf litter and fallen branches into kindling.”
For homeowners, this will impact landscaping. The types of trees, flowers and bushes that thrive in our climate gradually will change. So will the home gardening experience. As The National Wildlife Foundation writes: “Invasive, non-native plants and animals’ ranges are expanding and making them more apt to take advantage of weakened ecosystems and outcompete native species.”
Such changes might be gradual and barely perceptible. But unchecked warming undoubtedly will affect vegetation and, therefore, the global food chain. In one example, a 2021 report from NASA determined that corn yields are expected to decline by 24 percent by 2030, while wheat yields could increase by 17 percent. As agriculture changes, large-scale global migration will increase.
The point is not to stoke fear, but rather to reinforce the reality of climate change. Western Washington has a cool oceanic climate, but an alteration — even an average increase of 1 degree Celsius — will change the kinds of crops, livestock and fish that thrive here. That also will change how effectively humans can thrive in the environment.
All of this might seem like an extreme conclusion to draw from a series of brush fires on a warm June day. But the impacts of a changing climate are all around us, ranging from major fires in our forests to small blazes that start in our neighbor’s yard.
