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California's
2020 wildfire season was the largest in modern history —
nearly 10,000 separate fires burned almost 5 million
acres, displacing tens of thousands of residents from their
homes and killing 33 people. But one metric that we
cannot be sure of is the number of animal lives
lost, both during these disasters and in the
following months of lasting damage and cascading negative
effects. And now, as of this writing in July, 2021, California's
wildfires have already "scorched 3 times more land than in the
same period" last year.
Nowhere is safe once the
wildfires have taken hold. Even aquatic ecosystems, like
Redwood Shores Lagoon off the San Francisco Bay, have seen a
total disruption. Ash falls from the sky, killing many
of the fish; pelicans and egrets fail to return without their
fish food sources, as do bat rays. These animals recovered this year just weeks before
the next, even more devastating wildfire season began and the
horrible cycle started all over again.
Scientists, for years, have been
calling for more year-round maintenance of fuel areas — places
where dry vegetation, made even drier by climate change
induced heat and droughts, lays waiting to become
uncontrolled, deadly wildfires. This has largely gone
unaddressed, or even overpromised; in preparation for
the 2020 season, Governor Newsom claimed 90,000 acres of land
had been treated. An investigation uncovered that this number
was closer to 12,000. California has been routinely
falling short in its wildfire preparedness, and the
incalculable number of wildlife lost is only going to increase
if the state doesn't change its ways. Sign the petition and demand that California listen to
the science, and do more year-round to prevent uncontrolled
wildfires instead of it becoming a yearly
emergency!
Thank you,
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Lauren
The Care2 Petitions Team
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P.S. California
needs to do much more in between wildfire seasons, as
ecosystems have just barely bounced back from last year's
flames. Sign the petition. |
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