Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
Solar Activity - Climate Change and Natural
Disasters in Mountain Regions
Milan Radovanovic
Abstract Contemporary science is burdened with contradictory, i.e. severely
opposed attitudes relating to climate changes issue, i.e. global warming. What is
undisputable is that if climate changes are more intensive, the changes relating to
stand of plants are also more intensive. Forest fires are one of the most drastic fac-
tors that influence changes of stand of plants on mountain terrains. Damages caused
by destroying forests in that way vary from case to case, but the significant problem
occurs in irretrievable losses in soil due to additional erosion, as well as distur-
bances in underground water circulation. In contrast to plain terrains, mountains are
far more sensitive to such disasters especially when we have in mind losses in agri-
cultural soil, as well as in wild animals. The fact that direct connection between any
of climate elements and the initial phase of fire has not been established so far rep-
resents a special challenge to science. New hypothesis is presented in this chapter,
which tries to link the processes on the Sun, i.e. charged particles (protons) as the
potential causes of forest fires the origin of which is not known.
Keywords Solar activity
·
Forest fires
·
Natural disasters
2.1 Background
According to the official FAO data ( 2001 , 2002 ), the number of forest fires of
unknown origin (1999-2001) is over 20,000 in some European countries. For the
period from 1950 to 1991, 40% of fires with unknown cause were registered
in Europe ( http://www.feudeforet.org/english/forets_europe.htm#haut ). Nikolov
( 2006 ) points out that Bulgaria had the highest percentage of fires of unknown
cause (67.9%) on the Balkans in the period from 1988 to 2004, whereas the Balkan
countries had 37.9% in the same period. Disregarding whether it is about fires at
mountain terrains, foothill or plains, the connection between the meteorological, i.e.
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