As the world has seen, forest fires have been happening more and more frequently. The burning of the forest is harming the air that humans, animals, and all other living things breathe. Many people who don’t live in California or if they do, they never experienced the fires, they won’t understand how horrifying it is to go through the moment of losing your home, belongings, pets, and loved ones. These fires have been happening, and each time they do happen, it is worse every time.
Watching videos of YouTuber’s has been hard, especially seeing how upset they are when they see the fires less than 100 ft. away from their homes. Popular YouTuber, Heath Hussar and his girlfriend Mariah Amato, were asleep when they heard banging on their doors being told to evacuate because the fires were getting close to their home. Heath said in his video, “The whole city is just covered in smoke.” After seeing the destruction of the fires and how close it was to their own house. They filmed the fire at one part of the street and went back the next day and the fire department was able to stop the fire on the sidewalk. After seeing how close it was to the houses, they were just relieved they weren’t affected.
After watching the video, I asked Senior, Kendall Wiltse, what she thought about the fires. She answered, “ It’s very sad. Imagine leaving your animals by themselves, there is nothing you can do about it”. I asked the same question to Sophomore Amelia Regenor, Junior, Gina Calacino, and Freshman, Megan Woodward, the same question, how do you feel about the fires happening in California. Megan had said, “ I don’t know too much about the fires.” Amelia said “We should fix it” and Gina said “ It was sad and should not have happened”
Knowing that kids wouldn’t have much knowledge or relation to the fires, it was interesting to hear some of their answers. I asked an adult too, just to see the difference in viewpoints. I asked Mr. Betrus how he felt about the California fires as a science teacher. Mr. Betrus said, “ I feel bad for the people whose lives were turned upside down.”
The California fires have always been a problem and a threat to the people that live there. After listening to everyone talk about the fires, I realized that the older the interviewee got in age, the larger and more knowledgeable the answers we’re getting. Watching people answer them as well as interesting because when I asked Megan and Amelia, they hesitated to answer like they didn’t know what even happened. Whereas Maddy and Kendall had quick answers with feelings.
Many of the answers I got after the interview were more of they never even knew it happened, they thought it should have been publicized more. Amelia said that she thought it was more of a one-time thing than usual.
Climate change is a real issue that needs to be solved, by not only adults but by children as well and that starts with people knowing about what happens, how it happens, where it happens, and more importantly, what we as humans can do to change/ fix it.