![A wildfire rages. [Image credit: U.S Fish and Wildlife Service via Flickr]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/12/8/660x290/b_502x220x82/a-wildfire-rages-image-credit-us-fish-and-wildlife-service-via-flickr_1725741.jpg "A wildfire rages. [Image credit: U.S Fish and Wildlife Service via Flickr]")
California wildfires have been raging for days now. The epic blazes are part of a trend of increasing volatility within Earth’s climate systems. While the Western world focuses on California Wildfires right now, the rest of the world is on fire, too. Siberia, for example, has seen record wildfires in recent years, along with pockets of methane rising to the surface of the ice. This week alone, well over 100,000 acres in California have burned to ash, and most of the blazes have barely been contained. Polar bears are starving as a result of the melted ice.
UVB radiation off the charts
The largest contributing factors to California wildfires include increased temperatures, record high UVB radiation, incredibly low humidity, and lack of precipitation. Watch the last few minutes of the following video to see objective metering of UV radiation, demonstrating very high levels of intense UVB rays. This is another factor in California wildfires.
Record-breaking catastrophes
The last three years have been historic in terms of global average surface temperatures, contributing to California wildfires. 2016 was the hottest year on record. Prior to that, 2015 had broken the same record. And 2015 broke the record in 2014 for the hottest year at the time. Keep in mind, all of this only amounts to about 7% of all warming on the planet.
The other 93% has been absorbed by the oceans, which are dying off at an alarming rate.
Whales are getting severe sunburns on their backs, the coral reefs are dying, and giant “dead zones” now exist, where nothing lives at all. Scientists fear the warming of the oceans could lead to deep-sea methane deposits releasing into the atmosphere.
Methane is a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide. If even one percent of the frozen methane in the Arctic were to release into the atmosphere, it would turn Earth into Venus. The atmosphere now records over 2,000 parts per billion of methane. It has not been over 700 parts per billion for the past million years.
Just look at what's happening in Siberia:
Methane is so close to the surface that poking the ice with a spear can release it. How much has already escaped?
The polar bear factor
So what about the polar bears? They provide a startling indication of the sad state of our planet. This week, National Geographic posted a video showing a starving Polar Bear traversing an iceless area of the Arctic as it searched for food. It’s thought that the footage captured the last hours of the bear’s life.
Ibtimes.com reports “as arctic sea ice melts, California wildfires will get worse.” They cite a recent study in Nature Communications, which claims that melting Arctic sea ice has an effect on the climate beyond the Northern cap of the planet.
Obviously, none of this is normal. Scientists estimate that the likelihood of all this destruction not being caused by human activity is less than 0.1%. In short, while a starving polar bear and California wildfires may seem worlds apart, they have an intimate connection. They are both harbingers of a world on fire.
