Air pollution also comes from Wildfire Incidents, humans pay for the pollution

How humans pay when wildfires and climate change force animals to migrate

Wildfire smoke, Credit, Discover Magazine

Tiny particulate materials called PM 2.5 travel deep into the lungs and bloodstream every year, with 99.99 percent of the global population exposed to it every day. Niger, Pakistan, and Singapore lead the world in the number of days of exposure to PM 2.5 levels above the WHO recommendation levels, each nation having fewer than five days of PM 2.5 concentration below the recommended limits, according to a recent news report.

Growing energy production causes the problem. For instance, communities globally emitted more carbon dioxide in 2022 than in any other year on records dating to 1900, with emissions of the climate-warming gas growing by 0.9% to reach 36.8 gigatons, carbon dioxide emissions from coal growing by 1.6%,  carbon dioxide emissions from burning oil growing by  2.5%, with about half the surge resulting from the aviation sector, according to a recent report.

Unfortunately, PM 2.5 from acid rains and wildfires also affects animals like whales, dolphins, and other cetaceans, while mammals and reptiles show discomfort with acid rains, and then to climate change, the end result of the perpetually increasing energy production.

Over the last 30 years, polar bears on the Hudson Bay show response by  embarking on a northwards shift  in where they gather on the coast for their migration, moving by an average of seven kilometers per year, possibly in search of earlier forming sea ice.

Observations on more than 12,000 species from around the world show  that roughly half embark on migrations, the ones on land  moving an average of about 1.8 meters per year, while marine species move at about six kilometers per year, serpents seen hundreds of miles from their native habitats, migratory patterns changing as different species move either north or south.

Different species move either north or south because wildfires and acid rains expose them to air pollution through PM 2.5, or because many places like the Hudson Bay melt earlier in summer and freeze later in fall, or because mammals, birds and amphibians worldwide have lost an average of 18% of their natural habitat range as a result of  climate change, with a worst-case scenario saying  this loss could increase to 23% over the next 80 years.

In the US, major losses through wildlife migration occurred  in the form of attacks on  agriculture, livestock and property, with an estimated $4.5 billion lost through agricultural damage, while vehicle-deer collisions  cost $1.6 billion, and  in states such as Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, farmers lost 728 cattle animals between 1987 and 2001 through wildlife attacks.

According to a leading Swedish insurance company, traffic accidents involving wild animals increased substantially in Sweden from 2018 to 2020, involving 139,000 deer, 16,000 elks, 22,000 wild board, 9,000 fallow deer, and 1,300 red deer. Vehicle collisions with wild animals in 2016 reached 48,700 in the country, 300 more than the whole of 2015, the highest number of accidents ever recorded involving European elk, deer, wild boar and other wild animals. Five accidents occurred every hour on Swedish roads involving a wild animal, most commonly deer (37,594), with accidents on the roads with such large animals as moose or deer expensive, the bill for insurance and medical costing  around SEK 3 billion in 2014. On average, five people were killed and 800 injured in collisions with animals.

The number of animals hit by vehicles in Britain between June and August 2020 jumped 54% compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, the figure based on analysis of motor claims data by the insurer Zurich and coming as foreign travel restrictions saw millions of people take domestic breaks, instead of heading overseas.  

In Namibia, 590 human-wildlife conflict cases got reported in 2021, comprising  360 cases of crop damages - for which N$770 000 was paid to those affected, 206 cases of livestock losses got recorded, for which over N$1.2 million were paid to those affected, with 14 injuries to people who were paid a combined total of N$14 000 for the injuries caused by wild animals.

Species move across landscapes, as air pollution by wildfires and warming temperatures alter their habitat, the migrations pitting  human and wildlife against each other more often, with more than 60 people killed in confrontations with elephants at the start of 2022  in Zimbabwe, adding to the increased number of human/wildlife conflicts in Namibia, the animals hit by vehicles in Britain and Sweden every year, and the losses through livestock in the United States.

A global prevention policy should be designed to combat air pollution,  through international cooperation in terms of research, development, administration policy, monitoring, and politics, as this is crucial to making the world easier for both humans and animals, since it would curtail conflicts between both parties.

Electrifying transportation and transitioning to renewable power sources for electricity bring solutions to the issue of energy, since they would help at cutting down greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

What to Eat

Eating Vegan in Windhoek, Credit, Cook the Beans