Hi. Maybe this is a dumb question with an obvious answer, but I don’t know/remember enough to know for myself.
Lightning causes forest fires. It’s happening more and more as there are more droughts. If they can put lightning rods on buildings to protect them, could they not build a bunch of lightning rods in forests in susceptible areas? Would the lightning go into the ground and be harmless, or would it somehow still start a fire?
Cost aside, would it help prevent forest fires or no?
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TIA.
In: 6
The main cause of forest fires right now is actually arson and not natural causes.
Lightning ignited fires, but usually lightning is accompanied by rain, that slows down the spread of fire, so it’s not a problem.
Droughts of course exasperate the problem in that it accelerates the spread of fires. Yet there is another problem: overly protected forests. Most forests didn’t see large forest fires in several decades because firefighting has gone from non existent to pretty effective. That means, that fires spread faster and are more difficult to extinguish.
The solution is to simply let some fires burn and keep them away from houses and infrastructure. That way the first fire will be devastating, yet the second and third and all others after that will be slow, small and more easy to fight.
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