blog -Abuse commentary part 3

Abuse commentary Part 3: Fires-The Scale of Destruction We Cannot Ignore

When people hear about a wildfire, they often think about homes, buildings, and acres burned. But the destruction goes much deeper than that. Behind every fire are families, communities, wildlife, livestock, and livelihoods that may never fully recover.

These are not just statistics.

These are lives.

The Loss Beyond the Flames

Living in a rural area, I understand that animals are not just property.

They are dependent on us.

When disaster strikes, they cannot simply pack a bag and leave.

They cannot understand evacuation orders.

They cannot protect themselves from smoke, flames, dehydration, or being trapped.

This is something many people who live in cities may never have to consider.

During major fires, livestock losses can be devastating.

In Texas, thousands of cattle were lost during the devastating wildfires in 2024. Ranchers lost animals they had spent years raising, along with fences, grazing land, equipment, and the ability to continue their operations.

For many ranchers, this was not just a financial loss.

It was a way of life.

Why Preparation Matters

This is why I believe preparation is so important.

You cannot wait until the flames are at your fence line to decide what you will do.

You need a plan. Everyone has an individual situation is important for you to figure that out by researching what others are doing.

Where will your animals go?

How will you transport them?

Do you have enough water?

Do you have backup supplies?

Do you know your evacuation routes?

Animals depend on humans to make those decisions ahead of time.

Waiting until panic sets in can cost lives.

The fires themselves raise even more questions. Why are some fires moving so quickly? Why are some communities overwhelmed before they receive warnings? Why are some disasters leaving behind destruction on a scale people struggle to understand?”

Let's touch on the environment. If you're like me you have followed the news worldwide for quite some time. The fires are worldwide, the flooding is worldwide, the heat is worldwide. The extreme weather swings from hot to cold, cold to hot or worldwide. We used to have a term called cloudburst where it would rain hard for a couple of minutes and then stop.  Now we have something called rain bombs, which we experienced 3 or 4 years ago. It was the scariest minute plus, I've ever experienced.  We were towing and there were semis all around us. The visibility wasn't far beyond the hood of our truck. We started praying immediately.   I'm here to tell the tale.

As I researched what I would share with you I found this. And it goes back to department of forestry and some of the conversations we had with the district managers.

We lost two 25-year-old trees in the past couple of years and we are struggling to save two more. Many of our trees are suffering from blight which is extra work to deal with. 

We all know how important trees are to Earth and us.

Here's a quick little biology lesson.  While evapotranspiration, ( the total movement of water into the air from wet ground and growing plants.) is a physical cooling mechanism, the  impact of losing these trees worsens the long-term baseline temperature.  Why we are all experiencing hotter temperatures. You cannot lose Hector's/acres of trees in the millions without our planet being affected. We are losing our forests and the ones that aren't burning  are being removed by companies burning and destroying the trees in the Amazon.

Forests are massive carbon sinks that pull heat-trapping carbon dioxide ( produced by living beings exhale, fires, vehicles, aircraft, oceans, volcano's) out of the air.  When Forests burn,  the trees instantly release decades of stored carbon back into the atmosphere while permanently losing their ability to absorb future carbon dioxide emissions.  We lose their production of oxygen for all living beings.   Their shade, changes the ground. 

The planetary cooling system is deeply wounded by these recurring fires.  It is critical we push our forestry managers into managing the existing, intact forest ecosystems.  Trees ultimately affect our weather, locally. The loss of these trees creates more heat, less shade and it's devastating to the planet as I've mentioned.

In the spirit of acknowledging worldwide events, let's look at the Amazon forest for example,

Regional Forum for Economic and SocioEnvironmental Development of the Transamazon Highway and Xingu, the dam provided a significant medium for attention and business opportunities (Fearnside, 2017a). It destroyed thousands of acres and displaced the villages and the locals in the area who relied on that for life, thousands of years, destroyed.  Not to mention all the trees that were hewn down. Less oxygen, enough to affect our jet streams, worldwide.

In part four I'll go into more detail regarding the fires in California. I do not want to belabor all of them just the ones that I have some specifics on. One must learn before they can discern. It's incredibly important to walk through the weeds that I am giving you in order for you to hopefully put together strange events and answer your questions.

Until next time may God bless you and your furry friends.

Warning from above - Roxanne