Hello everyone! This is the first official blog post of the Montgomery Official School Newspaper! I hope everyone is having a good first few weeks of online school, and are staying healthy as well!
Today, I wanted to talk about the wildfires that have ravaged our city time and time again. If not actual fire, it has been the threat of fire, the smoke, or power outages that affect our learning, our mental health, and our ability to breathe well.
According to the Atlantic, “California has long had a propensity to burn. Its record of fire begins underwater, at the bottom of forest-fringed lakes, where ancient blazes left their stories in charcoal deposits. Tens of thousands of years later, the record continues in the logbooks of the Spanish, who saw “many smokes” rising above the coastal treetops when they sailed into San Pedro Bay on a Sunday morning in October 1542. Baya de los Fumos, they christened the waters ‘The Bay of Smoke.’”
Now, as I stated above, California has always had a history of being on fire. The curious thing is that nine of the ten most destructive fires in our state’s history have occurred all in the 21st century. This points to a larger problem.
There has been a video circulating around social media recently about Trump’s response to these most recent fires. He is blaming it all on us, stating that the last time we had fires, he told us to “clean our forest floors.” He is now refusing us help since we did not listen to him the first time. However, I wanted to explore how helpful Trump’s advice really was; if we had in fact cleaned our floors and raked all of California, could we have prevented this?
What is the real cause of these fires?
Climate change.
Climate change “affects how much moisture is in the air,” as well as leads to “hotter temperatures, less dependable precipitation and snowpack that melts sooner lead to drier soil and parched vegetation” (Scientific American). Us Californians know what that means. So while it is physically impossible to rake all of California’s forests, it isn’t even the cause for these wildfires. Climate change, the scientifically proven cause, the cause that Trump denies exists, is actually the reason why we go up in flames every year during the fall.
When reminiscing with one of my friends about fall time, she posed the extremely accurate question, “What smell do you think other kids associate with fall?” This, of course, was asked when both of us were inhaling air with a somewhat unhealthy air quality. See, for us, fall is cloaked with the scent of smoke. Not the roasting s’mores smoke, but the kind of smoke that reminds us of being rushed out of our rooms at 4 in the morning and being told to grab things most important to us.
When I asked someone who is not local, he replied, “Cinnamon or pumpkin or leaves.” I have to applaud him for trying even though leaves do not necessarily have a scent, but the point here is that our class of 2021 has not had that for our entire high school experience.
So how are we affected by all this?
Fire can not only harm us physically, but can also harm us mentally. According to Patricia Watson, a psychologist at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, “10 to 30 percent of wildfire survivors develop diagnosable mental-health conditions, including PTSD and depression. Another 50 percent may suffer from serious subclinical effects that fade with time. Studies have found that substance abuse and domestic violence rise after natural disasters. And while most fire survivors make a full recovery, many require formal treatment.” If you or anyone you know are experiencing symptoms of mental distress, please do not hesitate to contact an adult or peer you know can help. We are all in this together, and each of us know how hard it can be to get through fire season. We are here to help.
If you wish to aid the fire relief efforts in any way, you can use any of these links below to contribute!
https://sonomacountyfirerelief.org/donations (Sonoma County Fire Relief - donates to give families gift cards, food, or other household items - they are only taking financial donations at this time)
https://www.sonomacf.org/sonoma-county-resilience-fund/ (Sonoma County Resilience Fund - raises money to give grants to nonprofit organizations working on the front lines of disaster recovery)
https://uwba.org/ (Greater Bay Area Central Coast Wildfire Relief Fund - same idea as first two, but on a larger scale)
Stay safe Vikes and have a great day!
Video Credits to Mont!