[Interview file] An ominous sign of climate change The'red sky' in the western United States

● Ashes pouring into the red sky, "It was like the end of the Earth." It was

as if I had come to Mars.

The smoke and ashes from the forest fires covered the skies of San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley, turning orange, and red in severe places.

“As I got closer to the fire, the smoke and ashes completely covered the sunlight. It was like night.”

Residents of the city of San Francisco, USA, lit their lights while looking at the dark red sky that turned into night even though it was midday.

Wildfires occurred more than 320 kilometers away, but could also be felt in San Francisco Bay.

In other regions, such as Salem and Oregon, red skies, like the end of the earth, appeared.

The wildfire created a huge cumulonimbus cloud.

Smoke from forest fires across California and ashes from burning forests have unprecedentedly deteriorated air quality in a wide area, and an'air pollution warning' was issued in the San Francisco Bay area for 25 consecutive days.

This is the worst situation ever.

The previous record was the'air pollution warning' issued for 14 consecutive days during the forest fire in 2018.

The smoke acted like a filter on the camera lens.

Smoke particles refract sunlight like when the sun rises and falls.

Short wavelengths of blue and green light are not scattered, and long wavelengths of red and yellow light pass through, creating an atmosphere as if you are possessed by something.

CNN meteorological expert Judson Jones said, "The particles that cover the atmosphere block green and blue, making the sky look like a sunrise or sunset," he said. "The closer you get to a forest fire, the more sunlight cannot pass through the atmosphere, making it look like midnight." Explained.

San Francisco residents said, "It was a surreal atmosphere. When I woke up in the morning, it was as if I was seeing the sky on Mars." No, it was a dark red color. It was like seeing the end of the Earth.” He feared that it was an ominous sign.

and wildfires that occurred simultaneously in the western United States caused numerous casualties and displaced

as they spread through dry air and strong winds.

According to the US Daily New York Times and CNN broadcasts, as of the evening of the 10th, seven people were killed in forest fires in three states, including Washington, Oregon, and California, on the west coast of the United States.

The number of victims is expected to increase as more people are found in various places.

In Okanagan County, north of Washington, a family was unable to escape the fire, killing a 1-year-old baby and severely burned parents.

In Oregon, three people died, including two found dead in a vehicle in downtown Salem.

Three people died in California.

Currently, there are more than 85 major wildfires in progress in the western United States, of which more than 40 have occurred in three states: Washington, Oregon and California, facing side-by-side on the western coast of the United States.

In a record heatwave and strong winds, these wildfires in California, Oregon and Washington burned hundreds of thousands of acres of land and evacuated thousands of residents, CNN reported.

In Oregon, where 35 major wildfires are in progress, more than 300,000 acres (about 1,214 km2) of land were burned, and some villages such as Detroit, Blue River, Vida, Phoenix, and Talent were "in fact destroyed," Governor Kate Brown. Said.

In the Phoenix area with a population of 7,000, more than 1,000 homes were lost, and hundreds of homes were burned in nearby talent.

The state of California has already set an annual record of 2.2 million acres (approximately 8,903 km2) burnt by wildfires this year.

This is 14.7 times the area of ​​Seoul (about 605㎢).

"Probably the most challenging season of wildfires California has ever experienced," said California National Guard's Colonel Jesse Miller, referring to a combination of heat waves, strong winds, low humidity and drought.

California wildfires are spreading over 1,287 km from the north to the Mexican border.

'Creak Fire' in Madera and Fresno County in central California burned 152,000 acres (615 km2) and destroyed at least 360 structures.

In the San Francisco Bay area, smoke from wildfires covers the sky and it is dark even in broad daylight, making life difficult without turning on the lights.

Some residents are refraining from going out with anxiety that'the world seems to have come to an end' in this landscape.

Black dust settled on the roof and bonnet of a car parked on the side of the road.

The New York Times reported that "some have called it the'Nuclear Winte'."

Meteorologist Craig Shoemaker of the National Meteorological Administration (NWS) said that a large amount of smoke from the ``bear fire'' that occurred in the Sierra Nevada Mountains flew up to a height of 12 km overnight, forming a huge dark cloud of ash and ice.

A'Bobcat Fire' occurred in Los Angeles (LA), burning 1,300 acres (about 42㎢), and evacuation orders were issued to Pasadena and some areas in the northeast of Los Angeles.

'El Dorado Fire', which occurred in San Bernardino County, also expanded to 11,000 acres (about 45 km2).

In Washington State, more land than was burned during the last 12 wildfire seasons has been lost in one day over the past seven days, Governor Jay Insley said.

The total damage area so far is 330,000 acres (about 1,335 km2).

In Malden in eastern Washington, wildfires struck villages, destroying more than 80% of houses and public infrastructure, including fire stations, post offices, city halls, and libraries.

Governor Insley said, "I think almost all of these fires are human resources to some extent," and "a new reality for us to live in with a changing climate."

On the morning of the 9th, a red flag warning was issued in some areas of the five states, including Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Arizona, with more than 30 million people in the affected area.

Smoke from these areas was also observed over the Great Lakes, 4,000 km away.

Climate scientists said, “The drought and large fire that hit California, the abnormal high temperature of Death Valley that hit 54.4℃, and the natural disaster that surpassed the typhoon hitting Korea and Japan in the future. As time goes by, it will happen more,” he said. “In 10 years, you will miss the good times now.”

"We are facing a series of disasters amid the Corona 19 pandemic," said Kim Cobb, a climatologist at Georgia Tech. "(The future natural disaster) is a level that challenges imagination, and I am afraid even to know the future."

Cathy Delo, a North Carolina climatologist, said, "We've been talking about it since 10 years ago, but the scale of the natural disaster that is happening now is hard to estimate at the time."

Another climatologist, Jonathan Oberpeg, dean of environmental science at the University of Michigan, said, "With climate change heating the atmosphere, natural disasters that are twice as high as today will occur within 30 years."

Scientists believe the recent record fires and heatwaves in California are directly linked to climate change.

"It is obvious that the burning of fossil fuels exacerbates climate change and disasters," said Walid Abdalati, former head of NASA's chief scientist, dean of the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado.

"Because more heat is trapped in the atmosphere, we have provided more energy for these phenomena," said Peteri Thalas, president of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). , It will appear as heavy rain in another area."

also'highest in

Even with Corona 19, the concentration of greenhouse gases on the planet continues to rise, and the average temperature is also recording a record high due to global warming.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) temporarily decreased global carbon dioxide emissions in early April, when the blockade to prevent the spread of Corona 19 was in full swing on the 9th, but in early June, when most of the blockades were lifted. It was revealed that this has been shown to have returned to almost last year's levels.

WMO Secretary-General Peteri Thalass pointed out, "Since carbon dioxide has a long stay in the air, even if the emission is 7% this year, the concentration of greenhouse gases will rise to an all-time high."

The WMO announced in July that the Earth's CO2 concentration was 414.38 PPM, an increase of 2.63 PPM from 411.75 PPM a year ago.

That's a lot more than 350 PPM in 1988, which scientists see as a safety line.

As the concentration of carbon dioxide increased, the average temperature of the earth rose 1.1 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial (1850-1900).

Scientists predict that if the average temperature rises from 1.5 degrees Celsius to 2 degrees Celsius more than before industrialization, the extreme weather changes caused by warming, such as droughts, strong storms, and sea level rise, will become more serious," Reuters reported.

United Nations and World Weather The Organization (WMO) said, “Five years after the Paris Agreement on Climate Change in 2016 will be recorded as the highest period of temperature on the planet.” UN Secretary-General Antonius Gutéchs said, “If we cannot reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the global temperature will be higher than before industrialization. The climate change crisis is getting serious every hour, saying it can reach 3.5 degrees.” The

think tank Economic and Peace Research Institute (IEP) reported on the 9th, “The Ecological Threat Record of 2020” (ETR) in the world for the next 30 years. It predicted that 1 billion people, or 10% of the world's population, could become refugees due to natural disasters, water and food shortages.

Unlike wildfires in the western United States, where most of the wildfires occur naturally, the Amazon in Brazil suffers from artificial wildfires. Forests are destroyed by setting fires for agricultural land, grassland, and mine development.

Brazil's Amazon rainforest fires reported in the first week of September were 8723, which doubled from the same period a year ago, according to the Brazilian National Space Research Institute (INPE). In August, 18 fires in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil occurred per day, the worst in 10 years. In September, 53 wildfires occurred a day, Reuters reported.

In particular, the recent wildfires in the Amazon are occurring in new forests rather than in areas that have already been cleared, raising concerns. Reuters analyzed satellite imagery and reported that 27% of forest fires in the Amazon in September occurred in virgin forests. This is more than twice as high as 13% in August.

Scientists are concerned that the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, called the lungs of the planet, will reduce oxygen supply while simultaneously emitting enormous greenhouse gases and smoke, as well as threatening a variety of species and spreading fear of disease.

The World Nature Fund (WWF) and the London Zoo announced in their recently published Living Planet Report 2020 that the number of vertebrates on the planet has declined by 68% from 1970 to 2016. In particular, in the tropical regions of Latin America, the number of vertebrates declined by 94% during the same period.

The Earth Life Report pointed out that until the 1970s, human ecosystem invasion was less than the earth's resource regeneration capacity, but now consumes more than 50% of the earth's resource reproduction capacity.

The report revealed that a third of the earth's soil and three-quarters of freshwater are being used for food production, and 75% of marine fish resources are being overfished by destroying forests and grasslands and converting them to agricultural land.

Scientists warn that the decline in animal habitats increases the chances of a pandemic of a common infectious disease (a global pandemic) as humans have more opportunities to come into contact with animals. It is analyzed that the increase in greenhouse gas emissions and global warming caused by environmental destruction are causing a counterattack of the environment that accelerates large-scale natural disasters, and the intensity is increasing.

The pandemic of Corona 19, a strong typhoon that swept the Korean peninsula three times a month, and unprecedented wildfire damage in the western United States are calling for a sustainable global ecosystem that coexists with nature.