Introduction
Over the past decade, British Columbia has been in the spotlight for an increase in wildfires and floods driven by global climate change. In media coverage and research publications, human-induced climate change has increased atmospheric temperatures, increasing the risk of forest fires and intense weather patterns that lead to floods. The impacts of these calamities cut across the social, economic, and public health fronts of the human population.
Climate change has become an increasingly daunting global challenge in the 21st century. The rise in wildfire incidents and floods is attributed to commercial human activities (Gillett et al., 2022). In 2017, BC experienced a fire and flood crisis, during which 65,000 people were evacuated from their settlements. The crisis lasted ten months, close to a year, while the Canadian government spent more than $600 million to foster resilience (Parisien et al., 2023).
According to a report by Ecohubmap published in 2023, wildfires destroyed about 1.2 million ha of land in the BC province of Canada alone (Parisien et al., 2023). This illustrates the surge in wildfires and the urgent need for a response to the disastrous events. This research hypothesizes that floods and wildfires cause social destruction and economic losses, negatively affecting public health, and thus require political goodwill to be managed effectively.
Flooding in BC
The state of climate change, particularly flooding in British Columbia, has reached alarming levels over the past 10 years, according to credible reports from environmental agencies. According to the Climate Ready BC report, BC’s atmospheric temperatures have steadily increased (Parisien et al., 2023). Climate change studies link rising temperatures to glaciers melting, sporadic rainfall over very short periods, and snow melting. All these activities raise surface water levels, making the region prone to flash floods during the rainy season.
The report indicates that heavy rains and snowmelt cause severe flooding. Canada’s Climate Change Agency reinforced this by reporting that in 2019, BC received about 250mm of rainfall in a week, yet in other places, this amount is received in a month. (Parisien et al., 2023). Moreover, predicting spring weather has become increasingly complex due to early snowmelt and frequent rainfall. The result is river and stream overflows, landslides, and ineffective performance of artificial drainage systems.
In the context of the research topic focusing on the current and potential impact of floods, accumulating evidence states that physical, social, and economic destruction occurs. For one, floods in BC destroy property, including settlements. In 2017, the Canadian government had to relocate 65,000 people while attending to floods as an emergency for ten months (Parisien et al., 2023). Reports also indicate that floods destroy the province’s road and railway transport system infrastructure. Floods in BC cause health impacts through water contamination and psychological trauma in displaced families. Reports such as these serve as a basis for analyzing potential future impacts to foster disaster preparedness.
Forest Fires in BC
Forest fires, or wildfires, in BC are a pressing climate change issue yet to be definitively addressed. Like flooding, various agencies have publicized primary research on the causes and impacts of the fires on communities in BC. According to the Vancouver Sun, an environmental agency in BC, wildfires are more devastating than floods because of the cascading effects (Parisien et al., 2023). This includes landslides, loss of plant cover, and persistent droughts. The spiraling effects of wildfires are more dangerous because they are longer-lasting than those of floods. Monclimatetemoi extends knowledge by delving into public health issues related to poor air quality arising from smoke and gaseous emissions that affect human health.
Wildfires and floods are daunting issues in BC, as evidenced by both reports and other research. Climate change has become worse by the day in British Columbia (Parisien et al., 2023). Even more concerning is that BC is a low-level region, making floods and wildfires difficult to contain. By examining the current and future impacts of wildfires, we can better mitigate disasters (Parisien et al., 2023).
Culminating research increases the knowledge available about disasters’ direct and indirect impacts. For example, water contamination affects people’s health, but in the medium to long term, it escalates into increased public health expenditures, higher mortality, labor shortages, and lost productivity. Developing an integrated view shapes public policies to mitigate floods and wildfires in the region.
Overview of the Impact of Forest Fires and Floods
Previous studies on wildfires and floods in BC have examined the causes of increased incidents, their impacts, and adaptations to climate change. Clarke et al. (2022) conducted one such study to explore the impact of extreme climate change through the attribution perspective. The event-attribution approach quantifies the correlation among wildfires, floods, and human life. This study compiles data from credible sources indicating the damage caused by the calamities.
One of the study’s resounding statements is that the impact of climate change spans a spectrum from mild to extreme. Climate change manifests as rising temperatures, including extremely high temperatures, in BC (Clarke et al., 2022). Regarding precipitation, weather patterns are changing mildly, while flash floods are a severe manifestation of climate change.
The current impact of floods and wildfires quantifies the damage in dollars and cents when floods sweep away structures. Insurance companies spend up to $160 billion annually on insurance premiums for insured property (Clarke et al., 2022). Floods and fires cause death and injuries to thousands of people.
Heat waves caused 157,000 deaths, while 193,000 injuries were registered between 2000 and 2020 (Clarke et al., 2022). Alongside this, 111,000 people lost their lives to floods, while 304,000 sustained injuries (Clarke et al., 2022). This angle extends to mental health challenges caused by calamities. Downstream effects, such as productivity losses in the aftermath of disasters, demonstrate that economic output losses are a potential future impact of wildfires and floods.
Modern and future influences of wildfires and floods depend on a community’s sensitivity and level of adaptation. As Yu et al. (2021) state, communities in BC are susceptible to natural disasters due to the region’s topography. Yu et al. (2021) assert that wildfires cause public health concerns.
To accurately predict future public health issues, it is necessary to evaluate socioeconomic dynamics for mitigating wildfires and floods. This study also underscores the extent of injuries, the lack of adaptability, and measures that heighten property destruction and social separation. Future potential impacts of wildfires and floods in BC include loss of income streams, unemployment, and disruption of normalcy.
While most studies focus on social separation and economic destruction, a few explore the impact of wildfires and floods on food systems. According to Settee & Shukla (2020), wildfires and floods affect the core of human life by disrupting food systems. In this sense, food systems include the destruction of crops, leading to no harvests, making land less fertile for cultivation, and disruptions that affect agriculture as an economic activity. Critically assessing this, disruption of food systems is a current impact, as communities lack food during disasters, and it will persist as agricultural productivity decreases.
Research on the impact of forest fires and floods in BC has established that climate-change-induced catastrophes directly cause energy shortages. In a study focusing on the impact of incidents on BC in the 2000s, data indicated that the province experienced 7 of the worst wildfires worldwide between 2017 and 2023 (Settee & Shukla, 2020). During the same period, data indicate a drop in energy supplies in the province and Canada.
Settee and Shukla (2020) focus on the economic impacts of wildfires and floods, with special attention to the interference with wind and hydropower. Sporadic rains disrupt the ability to harness power from renewable sources, as their systems run on grid power (Settee & Shukla, 2020). Wildfires, on the other hand, contribute to flash floods, making it challenging to manage water flow for power generation. While energy shortages are felt immediately, their effects trickle down, leading to the depletion of other energy sources and the poor performance of the energy-dependent economy.
The current and foreseeable impacts of wildfires and floods are exacerbated by the fact that humans live close to forests and residential areas. As Eary et al. (2019) contend, the interdependence between man and nature naturally increases physical vulnerability to wildfires and floods. The impact of floods and wildfires transcends the apparent injuries and deaths, spilling over to social instabilities (Dierauer et al., 2021). Long-term effects include increased social inequities as rural communities grapple to bounce back from the damage they have suffered. The communities are also bound to live in fear for their safety and with psychological trauma that strains families and their productivity on social and economic fronts.
Social Impact
Accumulating research indicates that the current and potential impacts of wildfires and floods can be categorized into social separation, economic loss, and public health issues. The social impact of disasters is the most obvious and direct effect, as they separate families. Theoretical frameworks inform that the social effects of disasters include homelessness, death of family members, separation during rescue missions, and families having to start over in new locations (Settee & Shukla, 2020).
All of these effects are present in the wildfires and floods experienced in British Columbia. During floods and wildfires, thousands of families become homeless, and when temporary homes are provided, they receive different homes. During evaluation from the disaster-prone areas, families lose their social connections, such as friends, neighbors, and colleagues.
It is absurd that children suffer trauma from having to separate from their friends at school. The social disruption exacerbates socioeconomic disparities between the region’s rich and poor, thereby increasing the province’s poverty rate (Geertsema et al., 2022). This extends the knowledge, calling on disaster management agencies to adopt integrated disaster mitigation perspectives to eliminate such changes to the social structure.
Economic Impact
Legions of data reiterate that wildfires and floods cause massive economic destruction. At the basic level, the destruction of settlements, businesses, and other structures causes economic losses for struggling families. At a higher level, economic destruction from the emergencies stems from the damage to infrastructure.
According to the International Institute of Sustainable Development, the economic impact of the calamities in BC outpaces the province’s ability to adapt to climate change (Neary et al., 2019). The institute also reaffirms its research findings, stating that floods cause bridges to collapse, thereby inhibiting transportation. Similarly, floods damage roads, affecting economic production and impeding rescue services for flood victims.
Moreover, economic losses also spill into the ever-growing government expenditure on disaster management. For instance, the Canadian government’s disaster response expenditure reached $600 billion in 2021 to prepare for disasters and provide recovery services (Neary et al., 2019). While necessary measures are put in place to ensure resiliency, the future economic impact is hindered in an underdeveloped country, as resources are spent on disaster management rather than on investment.
Public Health Impact
Forest fires and flash floods also threaten public health in British Columbia. The breakdown of the current impact on public health entails injuries sustained during the disasters and rescue missions. The disasters always leave people with physical injuries that require urgent medical attention (Strouth & McDougall, 2021).
British Columbia’s Centre for Disease Control reports that wildfires cause the emission of toxic gases. Nitrous gases, carbon monoxide, and Sulfur gases are linked to respiratory complications that, if not properly managed, can lead to worse medical conditions (Neary et al., 2019). Overflowing water bodies facilitate the transmission of pathogens that cause waterborne diseases (Jakob et al., 2022). This causes cholera outbreaks that demand immediate public health intervention and the dedication of resources to rescue missions.
A new dynamic that is just coming from contemporary research is that events such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. As more organizations pay attention to physical health concerns, a clear gap exists in providing mental health support for disaster victims (Neary et al., 2019). In contrast, upcoming research on wildfires predicts that they degrade air quality. The future impact of the forest fires is thus to leave future generations physically unwell, with a different DNA makeup and new disease variants. These will be difficult to treat, consequently leading to high mortality.
Political Impact
Apart from their social and economic impacts, wildfires and floods have also affected British Columbia’s politics. The political impact of these adversities has led to policy changes aimed at protecting the province and its inhabitants from fire and flooding. The policies set by government officials outline prevention measures and fines for violations of the dogmas.
The authorities implement the Fire Smart strategy to prevent wildfires, which aims to train citizens to protect themselves and their communities from fire (Nikolakis & Roberts, 2022). Additionally, the Wild Fire Act, the Regulation, and flood management policies outline the sources of funding for the province to mitigate wildfire and flood risks throughout its territory (Nikolakis & Roberts, 2022). Therefore, it is imperative to note that political goodwill in British Columbia has played a pivotal role in mitigating the impacts of wildfires and floods.
Conclusion
Climate change and its impacts, including wildfires and floods in British Columbia, are pertinent. Research and reports indicate a downward trend in disaster preparedness. This stems from the fact that greenhouse gas emissions and global warming result from human activities.
Rising capitalism compels industrial productivity for economic growth and survival. It is thus difficult to maintain productivity while minimizing climate change. As a result, British Columbia has been experiencing widespread flooding and forest fires, leading to extensive destruction and disruption of normalcy.
The cited disasters’ most pronounced current and future impacts include social separation, economic loss, and public health concerns. Wildfires and floods cause homelessness, where families secure homes in separate locations. Communities also lose social connections as they seek to start a life in different locations.
The losses experienced will likely increase social stratification, where low-income families struggle to adjust to everyday life. Economic loss, which has the most significant impact, encompasses the destruction of personal property, energy shortages, and damage to infrastructure. In response to these impacts, the BC and federal governments must devise informed policies to mitigate the root causes of wildfires and floods.
References
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