The devastation of wildfires effect the environment and the animals who live in them. Wildfires don’t just effect the beautiful forests and rich soils around us. It effects the environment we live in and effect every one of us. When glaciers melt and forests are lit up in flames it isn’t just effecting the animals it effects the humans too. It should already bother you that animal homes are being destroyed but humans are being affected by the wildfires as well. Even if the problem is away from you it is a matter of time until it starts effecting you too.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, there was “66,131 wildfires from January 1 to December 22, 2017… about 9.8 million acres were burned in the 2017 period”. These statistics are stomach turning because these are a lot of wildfires in a very short amount of time. Trees are an important element of our very existence. It creates the air we breathe and 9.8 million acres of our resources were burned just this last year.

The estimation of consequences is enough to make a person realize the effects of wildfires. According to National Geographic a 2016 NASA study “revealed that forest fires actually have the ability to heat up the entire planet”. This estimation is proof that wildfires are a threat to human existence as well as the existence of animals. Per Laura Parker the NASA study also explains “some scientists predict the boreal for the forest may reach a disastrous and irreversible tipping point and shift from carbon storehouse into a major source of greenhouse gas emissions”. This is a dangerous estimation that can happen soon.

Wildfires effect the health of humans who live by the forests that are burning to the ground. Per National Geographic “wildfire smoke kills 339,000 people a year, mostly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa”. The fact that it kills that much of people should be bothersome but it is also has happened in the United States, specifically Northern California. Per National Geographic, “EPA researchers found, emergency room visits for heart failure in North California jumped 37 percent and saw a 66 percent increase for breathing problem-related visits following the smokiest days of a big 2008 peat fire”. Wildfires affect your lungs when you are in radius of the smoke coming from the fire. According to the American Lung Association, a threat from forest fire smoke is carbon monoxide… Inhaling CO reduces oxygen delivery to the body’s organs and tissues and can lead to headaches, nausea, dizziness and in high concentrations, premature death”. Wildfires is a devastation for both animal life and human life because it’s the destruction of a resource our ecosystems have needed to survive.

Wildfires are devastating because it affects the organisms around it. To most people it is a sad thought but it never is reality until you see the statistics. After doing research it is clear that wildfires are every bodies reality. Right now, it effects humans around us but it is a matter of time until it affects you directly. Wildfires are spreading and is a huge problem in our environment. It won’t fix itself and so now it is time to give back to the environment we have taken for granted.