“Wildfires are becoming increasingly more expensive due to the proportions they’re assuming every year”
This year, the CBI A3 program focused on the Sustainable Development Goal number 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production.
We looked for problems related to this topic in our local context, and explored them deeper during the two weeks we spent at CERN. One of the problems was deforestation. This contributes to global warming, a decrease in biodiversity, excessive loss of plants and animals, change in the Earth’s crust, and several other issues.
Previously, the causes for deforestation were the cut of trees for shipbuilding and houses’ heating. Nowadays, the main causes are wildfires, acid rain and for the construction of infrastructures.
Referring more specifically to wildfires, Portugal has the biggest eucalyptus area compared to its size, and they are not a native tree. The lack of planning and regulation of eucalyptus plantation are factors that, along with climate change, increase the risk of having wildfires, turning forests into real ticking bombs. One of the major issues that wildfires cause is the increase of CO2 emissions.
Wildfires are becoming increasingly more expensive due to the proportions they’re assuming every year, a consequence of global warming. But the problem is not only about the money – the shortage of water is not a thing so distance in the future. It is imperative that we find alternative means to fight fires so that this resource is preserved.