Comment on tru do
Depress_Mode@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Perhaps in the short term regarding albedo. Once the smoke dissipates soon though, it’ll be back to “normal”, except with a large boost in CO2 levels. Anyone who’s dealt with heavy wildfire smoke knows the smoke traps heat under it like a big blanket, too. For millions of years, wildfires were the largest contributors of CO2 released into the atmosphere.
Jumper775@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Wildfires are actually an important part of a forests life cycle, and they have always been around. They kill off massive swaths of old forest allowing new forest to grow, and diversifying the environment. They have been around since the forests have been, and there is a reason why they are not cited as one of the many things that is so bad for the environment. It is because they are necessary. The native Americans used to do controlled burns which would allow us to coexist with the forest fires without damaging either life form. We Americans, however, killed the vast majority of them so we could take this land. This is why it has gotten so out of hand today.
Depress_Mode@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Yes, this is all correct. It was my intention to differentiate the extreme hell-blazes we often see today that completely destroy forests (soil and all) from the much healthier fires that merely thin them. Fires are important, but because of gross forest mismanagement, now for forests to undergo their natural burn cycle is to completely burn to a crisp.