Baby Showers and Forest Fires

-
On the topic of love, another form of celebratory event that is notorious for being disastrous and having unintended consequences is baby showers. With the excitement of revealing the child's gender, many couples have incorporated extravagant techniques to make their gender reveal party as memorable as possible. Using a rifle to shoot at a highly explosive substance (Tannerite), deploying a crop-dusting plane to dump gallons of coloured water over a field, and driving a car emitting blue smoke are one of the many of said outrageous gender-reveal methods (Morales & Waller, 2021). These have all led to repercussions to the environment and to society, with some cases involving the death of third parties. Today's focus however will be about a more recent baby shower disaster that happened in California, which resulted in the El Dorado wildfire. 

What Happened? 

In 2020, a couple used a pyrotechnic device (smoke bomb) to announce their baby's gender, which sparked a wildfire in the San Bernardino National Forest. Although it started off small, the family evidently failed to extinguish the fire as it consumed more than 20,000 acres (81 km2) of the forest. This unfortunately led to the death of one firefighter and many living near the forest areas having to evacuate their homes on short notice (Lampen, 2021). Take a look at this video to get an idea of the severity of the situation: 

Why is this a Concern? 

Forest fires can occur naturally, such as during extreme weather events, and are even beneficial for the growth of forests. Then, why is this particular wildfire a concern? More generally, accounts of environmental impacts of forest fires include the emissions of various chemicals and particulates which affect atmospheric, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems on top of affecting humans (Martin, Tomida & Meacham, 2016). The most common contaminants of water bodies are nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx) and metals, as these flow as runoff. This can result in the increased presence of PBTs or Persistent, Bioaccumulative and Toxic substances, which have long-term effects on ecosystems, particularly when they enter the food chain. One such example is methylmercury present in fish, which has lethal side-effects on fish consumers. As for air pollution, particles which remain in the air as smoke and soot and can be carried by wind include volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and other inorganic gases. These are all particularly harmful to populations nearby, making it a cause for concern especially when the spread is uncontrolled. That being said, there are a lot of negative impacts of human-induced forest fires which are lasting and difficult to mitigate. Hopefully, the disastrous history of baby showers should deter couples from going above and beyond for their gender reveal parties in the future. 

References: 

Lampen, C. (2021, July 21). Let This Be a Lesson to Us All. The Cut. https://www.thecut.com/2021/07/couple-charged-for-starting-deadly-wildfire-at-gender-reveal.html

Martin, D., Tomida, M. & Meacham, B. Environmental Impact of Fire. Fire Science Reviews 5, 5 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40038-016-0014-1

Morales, C., & Waller, A. (2021, July 21). Gender-Reveal Party Is Blamed in California Wildfire. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/07/us/gender-reveal-party-wildfire.html

The Guardian [Guardian News ]. (2020, September 22). California firefighters battle El Dorado fire. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wMv-CpucCE

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

An Environmentally Unfriendly Start

-
Image
 3... 2... 1... HAPPY NEW YEAR!  As people all around the world gathered to witness the display of fireworks, I couldn't help but think about how many more New Years we can experience on Earth. This year, the fireworks in Singapore were held around neighbourhoods to manage crowd control, although not all went as planned. An incident of a firework projectile hitting a nearby house resulted in a halt in the fireworks display, and concerns were raised regarding the safety of fireworks. However, how harmful are fireworks really?  Source: Channel News Asia. (2022). https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/hdb-block-hit-fireworks-projectile-ubi-new-year-2410346 Air Pollution from Fireworks  While decorative, fireworks are a rather potent source of air pollution, releasing PM10 and PM2.5 particles into the atmosphere. These particles are largely detrimental to one's health even when one is exposed to them in a short period of time, and are commonly associated with ca...
Read more

Festivals - Holi

-
Image
Holi 2022 celebration in India.  Source: National Today Holi, also known as the Festival of Colours, is a religious Spring festival celebrated by Hindus. This year, Holi falls on the 18th of March. Although celebrated a little differently according to cultural practices, the more common ways of celebrating are by lighting bonfires and throwing water and powder paints of various colours to commemorate love, spring and new life (BBC, 2022). Holi is also celebrated in Singapore, and the biggest scale event is organised by Rang De Holi every year, where people get to throw rainbow-coloured powders in an open field. But this event is celebrated on an even larger scale in India and Nepal due to its historical and cultural significance. As with all events and festivities however, this celebration has also drawn the attention of environmentalists for its toxic effects on humans and ecosystems. Taking a look at a research paper by Gardner and Lal (2012), the impacts of Holi celebrations are...
Read more

Festivals - Coachella

-
Image
After 2 consecutive years of being cancelled, Coachella, one of the most anticipated music festivals in the U.S., finally returns this year and will be held in April from the 15th to 17th and 22nd to 24th. With big names like Harry Styles, Doja Cat and Billie Eilish, tickets are confirmed to sell out. Recently, Coachella (along with other large-scale music festivals) have been getting criticism from environmentalists due to its massive pollutive effects. The Coachella organising committee is aware of this and has dedicated a page to sustainability covering a range of the efforts undertaken to ensure eco-friendliness and mitigate negative environmental consequences. There are also reminders for festival-goers to reduce carbon footprint by ride-sharing and to minimise waste whenever possible. According to a paper by Larasti (2019), some of these efforts have indeed been successful in mitigating the environmental impacts generated. However, the carbon footprint generated from travelling ...
Read more