Australian Wildfire : global warming warning

At this time, there should be no more worrisome situation than the coronavirus that is spreading all over the world, including PM 2.5 dust that covers Thailand in many regions, especially in Bangkok and the upper northern region. However, before the virus and dust entered the news front page of every newspaper, you may still remember the Australian bush fire disaster that started to burn since the end of last year and has spread nation-wide to be on the front page of the world news, although the situation has now somewhat subsided, but still need to be vigilant and closely monitored. Today I would like to invite everyone to have insight on this forest fire disaster …

In general, forest fires occur from the following three common elements: (1) Forest fuels, consisting of wood components such as tree branches, tree trunks, tree stumps, leaves, including grass and weeds, as well as soil and coal layers underground. (2) oxygen, which is a gas that is normally present in forests. And, (3) heat generated in forests and can occur naturally or by humans.

For the fires that have occurred in Australia have intensified and spread as a result of the burning in a limited area. The important cause is the third element which is heat which is caused by global warming. In a statement by Australian Prime Minister, Mr. Scott Morrison accepted in the first week of January 2020 that the forest fire incident that is directly linked to climate change.

However, Australian forest fires are caused by long-lasting hot weather, resulting in natural fuels losing moisture. This causes a lot of fuel accumulation and causes a severe Australian forest fire. Losing more than 25 million acres or 63.25 million rai of forest, there have been at least 28 deaths from forest fires, with more than 3,000 homes burned down. The most forest fires occurring in the state of New South Wales and Victoria.

The effects of this forest fire have caused enormous damage to the ecosystem. Professor Christopher Dickman, expert on biodiversity, Faculty of Science University of Sydney. It is estimated that more than 1 billion wild animals have died since the forest fires began in September 2019. Animals died from the injuries and their habitats and livelihoods being destroyed (Assessed from data previously studied with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in 2007 on the impact of deforestation on wildlife in New South Wales). This estimate does not include bats, frogs, insects and other invertebrates.

Most animals that are mammals, birds and reptiles are also affected. Of course, you will likely see a picture of the poor Koala, the Australian native animal, is injured and shared the most online media by Sam Mitchell, one of the founders of Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park, South Australia. He mentioned that there were 50,000 Koalas that existed before the forest fire crisis. Which there is a possibility that more than half of all Koala populations are affected and die from this forest fire crisis.

Forest fires also burn down the habitat and livelihoods of other local animals such as kangaroos, wombats, Dunnard, and cockatoo, especially the black cockatoo which around 300-370 of them existed. This forest fire happened to coincide with the spawning season of the cockatoo. As a result, many females that are hatching will not leave the nest and die from the forest fire. In addition, many wild animals that have not yet been listed which have the risk of extinction also affected. Because forests in Australia are considered one of the world’s most biodiversity forests, one of the 17 countries that are considered to have extremely high levels of biodiversity (megadiverse). And unfortunately that the habitat of these organisms is concentrated in the area of the forest fire …

In addition to the extinction of various animal species, forest fires also have other effects: large amounts of burning fires have raged through the eastern coast of Australia for months, causing the large amount of smoke pushed across the Pacific Ocean. In which NASA explained that the smoke from the flame on New Year’s Day 2020 has crossed into South America. Changing the sky to be overcast and move half of the distance around the world on January 8. Then on January 14, 2020, which is considered to be the first time of the smoke to circle around the world. And it is still continuing to go on. Although Mr. Shane Fitzsimmons, head of the New South Wales Rural Fire Department, revealed on Monday, January 13, that The Australian Fire Department has been able to control the “Gaspers Mountain” forest fire, the Megablaze, which has been classified as the largest forest fire. But there are still more than 100 more burning forest fires throughout the country.

As described above, when considering the cause of the occurrence of this forest fire disaster, one of the key elements of forest fires is “heat” caused by extreme weather conditions, leading to higher global temperatures, which are caused by human that contribute to the production of carbon dioxide (CO2), an important component of greenhouse gases and the cause of global warming …

It may be time to give up hope to anyone to help solve global warming. Unless immediately acted by ourselves …

So how can we help reduce the production of CO2 to produce significant results? Professor Dr. Boonserm Kitsirikul studied and demonstrated the calculation of useless digital data deletion. As previously proposed in the article “Reduce digital data = reduce global warming”. On November 7, 2019, he stated that “Data centers around the world release about 100 million tons of CO2 per year. Thai people use data centers approximately 1% of the world usage, causing CO2 = 1 million tons per year. If we delete unnecessary or useless digital data, we can reduce our data center energy consumption by about 30%, or reduced CO2 by 300,000 tons per year. While the plastic bag waste is 1.2 million tons per year or equal to 100,000 tons per month. If we can actually reduce 15% as a result of the campaign to reduce the use of plastic bags, we will be able to reduce 15,000 tons of plastic bags per month or equal to 15,000 x 1.96 = 29,400 tons of CO2 per month. Therefore, we can compare the deletion of useless digital data campaign with plastic bags reduction campaign by 300,000 tons of CO2 per year. From deleting digital data equal to 300,000 / 29,400 = plastic bag reduction campaign 10.2 months. In summary, it can be seen that the deletion of digital data has a significant effect on reducing carbon dioxide. And deleting these unnecessary digital data is not that difficult. Just delete, delete all unnecessary data, which helps reduce global warming, equivalent to reducing plastic bags for over 10 months.”

Aside from deleting digital data and reducing the use of plastic, reducing the use of the internet by using it sparingly also helps reduce the use of heat energy to connect data centers around the world. And if we help increase the amount of green space by planting and caring for trees, it will increase oxygen and helps absorb carbon dioxide as well …

Warning signs from global warming have appeared since the beginning of 2020, which is a reflection of the effects of global warming created by human. By initiating results across the year with forest fires in Australia, while the oceans around the world have the highest temperatures that have ever been recorded. In addition, volcanoes in the Philippines also have a big eruption. In Thailand, there is a drought, forest fires in Khao Yai National Park, poisonous PM 2.5 exceeds standard values in almost all regions of the country and other disasters in many countries around the world …

Every human being is given the opportunity to be and live in this world. Now it is necessary to act quickly in every way to stop creating the cause of global warming. Because that means the future of our children who have to live in this world as well.

It may not be time left anymore to ask someone to help solve global warming. Aside from us having to make a decision to salvage and slowing global warming with our own hands!

Article By Dr. Jitikan Chinarak

SAVE THE CLIMATE

Stop global warming with KBO EARTH

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“Reduce” : Internet usage

“Delete” : Useless digital data

“Reduce” : Plastic and electricity usage

“Add” : Green life; plant more trees

4 HOURS OF NO WI-FI : Stop using the internet every Sunday morning from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m.

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References

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-50951043?fbclid=IwAR0dBgchP6o5Hf1HzjhLsg1Kt7bWCQEh6e0Z-0M5UmIldum0Ok5nKzN6ApI