Wildfires are awful to live through. It doesn’t matter if you are human or animal, the terror and destruction can drive you to do things you wouldn’t normally do.
One Redditor found this to be true. They shared photos of a bear that hid under a home in Southern California to escape rampaging wildfires. There is also one photo of someone halfway under the house, presumably trying to extract the bear.
What’s happening?
NBC explained how weather conditions made conditions perfect for massive, uncontrollable wildfires in the Los Angeles area. These fires took out tens of thousands of structures, including entire neighborhoods.
They started because the weather was very dry and extremely windy. If anything catches fire in this kind of environment, it can be extremely hard to put out.
The California Air Resources Board attributes these kinds of conditions to the changing climate, which comes from choosing dirty energy. Without these changes, this bear may never have needed to make human contact.
Why is the effect of the climate on wildlife important?
Changes to the climate can lead to encounters with wildlife that neither humans nor animals want or need. While pictures of a bear under a house may be cute, and we can be grateful the animal survived, the BBC reported that more contact between wild animals and humans raises the chances of animal attacks.
Animals that attack humans are often euthanized — not the outcome any of us want.
What’s being done about the climate and how it affects animals?
The Global Center on Adaptation has a four-pronged approach to protecting animals affected by changes to the climate. It wants us to create and maintain protected areas for animals, find nature-based solutions to these issues (instead of human-based ones), manage water supplies better, and engage communities in learning what animals need to help save them.
On a personal level, giving climate-conscious candidates your support can help put plans like this into action. You can also talk about the changing climate with your friends and family and teach any children in your orbit about it, too. When we know what’s going on, we can make better choices for ourselves, animals, and the planet.
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