Climate Change: Brutal wildfires of California, Amazon forest, and lessons for India
At least 40 people have died in blazing wildfires that torched California’s wine country
In California’s deadliest-ever wildfires, at least 40 people have been killed and hundreds are missing. 16 wildfires spread by shifting winds in north of San Francisco have gutted 865 sq. km. – an area larger than New York City. Some 100,000 people have fled their homes, and 5,700 homes and businesses have been reduced to ashes, as captured in this drone video of a USPS truck delivering mail to a Santa Rosa neighbourhood.
Immigrants and prison inmates are helping in the rescue efforts amid air quality ‘as bad as Beijing’s’. California’s governor Jerry Brown has said that the unprecedented wildfires and storms fuelled by climate change are becoming more brutal.
Climate change driven: Amazon wildfires, Indian floods and droughts
Meanwhile, climate change driven wildfires are devouring the Amazon forest thanks to Brazil’s policies that are eliminating environmental licensing, opening up indigenous lands to mining, highways and dams and making it easier for land grabbers. This is a dire lesson for the Indian forest ministry, which according to experts is on a land diversion spree at a time when forested lands are being considered valuable carbon sinks.