West Coast Wild Fires

The Golden State of California, known for its gorgeous coastlines, lush forests and vast deserts has been burning for years. Since the 1980s the intensity of the fires has doubled. News outlets have documented people having to evacuate their homes. Many people question if this is due to increasing temperatures.  

Locals are so used to this now that people from the East Coast could never wrap their head around this kind of lifestyle. However, Ella Beatson, a Bay Area resident, chose to continue to go to school in California. She has never had to relocate but many of her friends and relatives have. “My aunt lives in Southern California, outside of Orange County,” Beatson said. “They had to relocate because they were too concerned that they were going to be in during a scary wildfire.”  

For students who go to school on the East Coast, something like a smog day is something unimaginable, but for students on the west, this is common. Beatson is one of these students, “We do have certain days of school where we can’t go because of conditions,” said Beatson It’s definitely scary when we look out and it’s really smoky and the air quality looks bad. 

Maybe people wonder if climate change and the increase in temperature of the world is the cause of such brutal fires. Beatson has lived in California for 15 years and the fires during her time on the West Coast have gotten worse. She thinks that climate change is a significant contributing factor. “I think that human involvement and the way we have altered nature in a way that it’s not supposed to occur,” Beatson said. “Deforestation definitely plays a big part.”

These fires around California are just a fraction of the fires that happen around the United States and Canada. The world is crying out for help to save the environment.