A Breathable Future

I envision a future where we can step out to breathe in a breath of fresh air and can enjoy time outdoors, without having to worry about the impact the air quality will have on us. Everyone should have access to clean breathable air. I value clean air, and I am sure many others do too. Have you ever stepped outside when there was a live forest fire somewhere nearby, not only is it hard to breathe, it impacts your vision and other capacities. The fires that exist today are not the same as those in the past, super fires exist now and in comparison to the past, the risk to life and property has increased. Fires not only ruin the air quality, but they also ruin lives: people die, and lose homes and valuables. Our contributions to fires are not just direct, with human-set fires, but we also contribute indirectly as well. We add to climate change through many actions (such as burning fossil fuels and wasting/over-consuming resources) and this leads to global temperatures rising, which further results in creating more fuel sources by drying grasslands and trees. There are a few interventions: planting trees further away from each other and planting different tree species with varying fire-catching properties. Implementing and carrying out severe penalties for human-lit forest fires, especially for nonsensical reasons such as gender reveal parties. Just stopping someone from setting a fire does not do much, setting planned-out fires that burn some of the fuel now, so that when one gets set naturally, there is less fuel to burn, and less damage to be done. People believe that by setting these fires, their economic livelihoods are in jeopardy, and they are concerned that a controlled fire will get out of hand, but these judgments are based on misunderstandings about larger scaled forest fires getting out of hand.

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