Greenland Ice Sheet: Impact Of Boreal Forest Fires

799 Words4 Pages

With about 80% of it being cover in ice caps and glaciers, Greenland is the biggest island in the world. In the 10th century, Vikings from Iceland arrived to the island. Since 1979, Greenland was admitted under Danish parliament to be self-governed. The native people in Greenland are the Inuit. The main languages include Greenlandic, Danish, and some English. The island expands to 1660 miles long and 650 miles wide. Greenland is known for its vast ice sheet, which is has a capacity of 10,000 feet. The island sits inside the arctic circle. Scientists have insisted that Greenland’s Ice Sheets have shown signs of melting at a dangerous rate, not knowing if it is long-term effect causing it. Ice sheets usually break off and end out in the water. …show more content…

The article, Climate change and forest fires synergistically drive widespread melt events of the Greenland Ice Sheet, spoke about the different effects on the ice when the climate changed or there was a forest fire. The article, Concentrations and mass size distributions of particulate trace elements at summit, Greenland: Impact of boreal forest fires, included facts on the different chemical elements “affected by emissions from boreal forest fires” (Maenhaut, Hillamo, Mäkelä, Jaffrezo, Bergin and Davidson,1997, pg. S565) The article, High northern latitude forest fires and vegetation emissions over the last millennium inferred from the chemistry of a central Greenland ice …show more content…

Forests are not yet resistant to the troubles caused by humans, and only humans can prevent that themselves. There are three main components that a fire needs before it is started: oxygen, a heat source, and fuel. Oxygen is the air humans breathe. Heat sources is the foundation of a fire. Heat sources include lightning, hot winds, even something as little as a cigarette. Fuel includes the combustible substances within the area, trees and grass. The best way to reduce forest fires is to reduce the use of heat sources within the area. First way to reduce forest fires is the enforce “no smoking” within forest premises. After someone smokes, that person has a habit of throwing it on the ground. In the forest, if a person throws a cigarette on the ground, it can definitely start a fire. There should be laws to support this claim and if a person is found, they should be fined. Another way to reduce forest fires is to prevent camp fires. Camp fires are fun during camping trips, but one wrong move can set the whole forest on fire. Many people who start the fires may not even have any knowledge on the fire. People are careless and are not careful of their surroundings, preventing camp fires will prevent a possible