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Perhaps in the short term regarding albedo, though IR still largely shines through. Once the smoke dissipates soon though, it’ll be back to “normal”, except now with a large boost in CO2 levels, leading to more heating. Except it won’t be normal because the blackened forests then decrease the albedo even further than it was before. Burnt forests also get less snowpack, which again further reduces albedo. Anyone who’s dealt with heavy wildfire smoke knows the smoke tends to trap heat under it like a big blanket, too.
Wildfires (especially as big as we see them today) are definitely a net bad thing for the environment, health, communities, etc.
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.
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 smaller healthier, and more regular 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.
It’s like the earth is a living entity trying to kill of the virus infecting it. We as humans don’t really think about it, but earth will win, it’s just a matter of time. No matter how bad we fuck up the earth, it’ll heal after we die off.
Or it won’t heal and just be another barren rock like the others in this system. And even then, the planet still won’t care.
Nah. Humans aren’t remotely that powerful. We could detonate every nuke on the planet tomorrow and make human life impossible, but in 1000 years the conditions for life would be fine, just the large animals would be extinct. In 1 million years you wouldn’t even know it had happened u less you dug I to the geological record. And 1 million years is like the blink of an eye on the timescale of a planet.
Is that you Agent Smith?
I’m breathing it constantly in southern oregon
The lightening is brutal
At least it’s not heavy
Noooooooooope, don’t fall for it. I’ve seen the finale of Dinosaurs, I know how this ends.
hooray wildfires???
No.
F
As much as I wanna laugh at this meme, I’m pretty sure the vast number of wildfires going on lately are partly why worldwide temperatures have been higher than average. The sun isn’t the only source of heat…
That was one of the craziest things I’ve read in a while.
I mean who knew??
