On Friday, March 31, 2017, lecture entitled "The Impact of Climate Change on Agricultural Production and Potential Hazard to Plant Fires" was held by the Agrometeorological Institute in our school library. Aim of this lecture is raising awareness of the impact of climate change on the environment.
The Agrometeorologist Višnja Vučetić prepared an animated film with the slogan "Do not star the fire, fire is not joking!" (slogan is really catchy when said in Croatian) in which we saw how little is needed for forest to be devastated and how much time it needs to regenerate. An animated film displayed an unprotected dormouse - rodent often mistaken with a squirrel, as well as the hedgehog as examples of animals that are very often the fire victims.
We have learned that it is very important to keep track of the weather, especially during the warmer periods of the year when a fire can cause major and irreversible damage. Long, hot and dry periods alternate with abundant precipitation levels that cause catastrophic floods and cause major losses in agricultural production.
The biggest damage to the economy and agriculture in Croatia is caused by droughts.
Increasing drought periods (drought stress) and shortening the vegetation of agricultural crops are the main factors that limit farming production. Thermal or meteorological stress in meteorology means 10 consecutive days in which the optimum air temperature is at least 30 degrees.
On the other hand, burning of vegetation does not occur only on our coast, but research shows an increasing frequency in the continental part of Croatia, especially in the springtime, on the weeds and on the stubbles.
Ms. Vučetić emphasizes that it is important to carry out climate change research and to follow the flowering and ripening of plants and berries that are more and more overlapping in the dates caused by global warming.
Agricultural meteorology highlights the disparity between the rich and the poor, saying that there are around one billion poor people in the world, and most of them children in third world countries. Given that the underprivileged and the poor are often hungry and live in high temperature climates, Ms. Vučetić concludes that Europe, apart from the mass immigration of immigrants, will meet with mass immigrants from the warmer regions to which Europe is promised a shadow country.
We are witnessing even more rapid changes in extreme weather conditions as a result of intense global warming we have seen during the lecture on the map of the world by simulating the MUKLIMO_3 model and the ALADIN model that shows the air temperature.
"Very large fire hazard occurs most frequently,in July and August, when the forests are too thin to precipitate and it is easier to spread a fire, especially if strong winds are blowing from land to sea", adds agrometeorologist.
The last most remembered fires in Croatia occurred on August 6, 1998, in Pelješac, when two women were killed in the house and again at Pelješac in 2015 when it was discovered that the fire had been set and firefighters had to let the entire forest burn out since canaders can not fly at night, and the forest fire at night can not be extinguished.
"After a great fire on Pelješac in November, large floods of water began to descend from the hills and forests and flooded the entire island. After the extinction of large fires, forest carcasses have been created and decades need to pass for forest regrowth. There is nothing left to do except for the reforestation and the hard ground repair, " concluded Ms. Vučetić.
In the end, we have repeated the important numbers we need to contact in the event of a fire (193, 112), and we all wondered if in the year 2035 we will need theater to show our descendants our forests or if we will really keep and nurture them as Mother Nature deserves it.