脸部增肥小偏方:What damage can be caused as a result of bushfires?

来源:百度文库 编辑:杭州交通信息网 时间:2024/03/29 05:38:26
请问这题应该怎么答,要用英文回答
最好是简洁归纳

I live in Australia and bushfires are fairly common here.

Here is some information from an Australian website: (the address at the end)

In severe fire seasons the damage caused by bushfires is astronomical. In the 2002 Canberra fire disaster, for example, the cost to insurers alone was $257 million (The West Australian, 13 Feb, 2003). The total cost of the fires, including the cost of suppression measures and lost productivity, would be much greater than this figure. Add to it the loss of life, personal trauma, loss of invaluable personal possessions and destruction of scientific equipment and data from the Mt Stromlo Observatory, and the ramifications of such disasters start to become apparent. And it does not end with the direct impacts of the fire. We all lose financially because the inevitable consequence of any large disaster is a rise in insurance premiums.

How much better then, if we can avoid, or at least minimise the risk, of such disasters happening again. While the Canberra fire disaster was a complex issue, with several factors contributing to the outcome, experienced fire managers have estimated that a prescribed burn costing about $100,000 would have prevented the disaster, but the burn did not take place due to mistaken land management policies. A mere $100,000 set against well over $257 million would seem a good deal for the community.

Canberra is not the only city to have suffered from bushfire damage in recent years. Sydney has experienced a series of lesser, but still serious, bushfire disasters since 1994. In some respects most Australian city fringes and country towns have become more prone to bushfire damage over the past 30 or so years, with the proliferation of rural lifestyle smallholdings and natural vegetation reserves that are preserved, rather than actively managed. Many people who move into rural smallholdings have little awareness of fire management issues.

Public infrastructure also suffers in major wildfires, Bridges may be burnt, powerlines damaged and industrial plants destroyed. All these lead to diversion of Government resources to repair them, or to reduced economic performance by industry. Apart from the inconvenience of interrupted access, lack of electrical power and economic activity, job losses are frequently added to human woes.

Of course, the forests incinerated by these intense bushfires also suffer great damage. Unlike the usual description employed in the media, most native forests are not “destroyed” by wildfire. Some are. Ash-type eucalypt forests are killed in this way, as the 1939 Victorian fire disaster clearly demonstrated. Drier forest types, such as jarrah in WA are not destroyed, although some individual trees may die, the forest cover is not removed. Most eucalypts have a number of specialised features that enable recovery from intense fires. The remaining trees are, however, damaged in a number of ways. The cambium (the growth layer under the bark) may be killed in one side of the bole, resulting in “dry sides” which are subsequently prone to insect attack, degrading the timber for almost any use. Rots also gain entry via dry sides and burnt limbs. Trees that already have “hollow butts” will often burn out completely and fall, and new hollow butts will be created when a dry log burns alongside a standing tree. The upper parts of saplings and small trees are often killed so that the stems become malformed, thus reducing their potential commercial value, as well as permitting access by damaging fungi and insects.

Intense bushfires cause the death, by incineration or smoke suffocation, of large numbers of native animals and insects that are unable to avoid the flames. Microsites that do not burn under low intensity burns are incinerated and there are thus no refugial areas left for fire sensitive flora or fauna, or for subsequent recolonisation after the fire. The large areal extent of severe wildfires means that, unlike prescribed burning where any fauna losses are quickly made up from surrounding unburnt forest, there are wholesale fauna losses. The potential for total loss of a rare and endangered species is clear.

In the case of pine plantations, on which we are now so dependent for timber supplies, the trees are killed by high intensity fires. The logs may also be degraded for certain end uses by charcoal. Destruction of immature plantations disrupts the flow of future timber supplies, with adverse impacts on local employment. In blue gum plantations, we can expect that high intensity fires will kill most trees and, due to their small size, the degradation of logs by charcoal will render them useless for pulpwood, their intended market.

Wildfires generate huge quantities of smoke

Bushfires also generate smoke, massive amounts of smoke, and much more per unit area than a prescribed burn, because there is much more complete combustion. Such huge volumes of smoke can dislocate aerial communications and affect human health, as we have seen in South East Asia in recent years.

source: http://www.bushfirefront.com.au/impact3.htm

threaten the people's life and environment, the smoke gets the polluiton etc.

there will be air pollution and reduction of trees.in a word, it will do harm to environment.

Air pollution and trees will be less