Forest Fires! The most problematic climate disasters.

Climate change is finally here. Anyone who says it isn't simply must live under a rock. Whether it is the droughts from the East to the West Coast or forest fires occurring throughout North America, we are seeing the effects firsthand. Just a few months ago, the smoke from forest fires in Quebec drifted to my town, some 540 miles away, and changed the course of my and everyone else's lives for days. It felt like I was living in a zombie apocalypse. The sky was an eerie yellow and had dust particles floating around. People were being cautioned to stay inside unless it was necessary that you had to be outdoors. We were all scared and confused. What was going to happen next? How long would this continue?

Forest fires are happening monthly now, and they are terrifying. But they aren't just scary because they can burn for days and engulf homes and towns within their flames. They are also extremely harmful to the environment.

Forest fires have consistently been one of the biggest adders of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere in recent years. In the simplest way to put it, forests store a lot of carbon. When they burn, they immediately release carbon dioxide, a harmful chemical, into the atmosphere, directly contributing to global warming.

Not only have they been a significant problem for the earth, but they have caused just as significant problems on the global political stage.

Since wildfires cause many issues, there are always many debates about how to treat them and the other topics concerning them.

First, there are always significant disagreements on allocating resources and funds to fight these fires since they can be very costly. Between payment for firefighting efforts, emergency response units, and recovery, the prices sure do add up, and political parties often disagree on how much money should be set towards fighting these.

They also spark debates over policies concerning forest management and regulations, which are always hot topics because they involve more than just the government. Environmental groups, industry stakeholders, and policymakers all tend to have different views on preventing and managing these forest fires, and the disagreements lead to continuous debates that only partially solve the issue.

Forest fires are an extremely essential topic, especially nowadays. They are often the center of many problems because if it's not a conversation directly about them, they are right there in the center of talks about climate change, global warming, and health issues. It should be a relatively simple topic to agree on, but there will always be political discourse around the subject.