Just a Chemical Reaction...

A chemical reaction is where substances change from one thing to another.  Different chemical compounds coming together, joining, splitting apart, recombining....  And it can all get pretty dramatic...

My Mum studied to be a herbalist when I was young and in order to get on the course, she had to go back to school and do her O-Level Chemistry.  She watched quite a few Open University programmes to help and there was one we all liked.  It featured the alkali metals and they definitely made an impression...  In fact, despite the age and out datedness of this programme, this memorable clip remains on youtube and is worth a look, just make sure you stick around to the end....

When things explode, when they go up in flames, when you drop something in water and the water starts bubbling...  These are all chemical reactions.  You set fire to a piece of wood, by the time it has finished burning, you don't have any wood left.  It has been transformed into ashes and smoke, or if you are being more precise, water, organic vapours, gases and particulates.  Wood is stable, generally in our typical climate though, you need to heat it up to get the reaction started and then it will keep going until it has finished, with the reaction itself producing heat.

Some woods are more flammable than others.  I was lucky enough to visit Madeira and we went in to the mountains and stood in a Eucalyptus forest.  The smell was amazing.  I don't have a great sense of smell, never have.  I have allergies and mild asthma.  Stood there amongst all those trees though, I could breathe and it was delicious.  The way natural eucalyptus smells is much more complex than the purified oil.  I imagine there are a number of oils and ingredients with their own scents that are removed during the process of refining the oil.

Eucalyptus is not native to Madeira, it was introduced because of its drought resistant properties.  The island had suffered devastating deforestation as it's existing Laurel woodland was mismanaged.  This led to dreadful soil erosion.  The eucalyptus trees were initially planted to halt the soil erosion but also to help drain swamps, reducing malaria.  The trees have had a huge impact on the island and this is a great article, but it doesn't talk about one of the biggest issues...

Fires are normal in Madeira, with a dry climate, a lightening strike can easily start one.  Eucalyptus trees have made the fires far more deadly though.  The beautiful aroma of the trees is a result of the essential oils and the trees are full of it and very flammable.  When they burn, the bark explodes off and ignites more fires.  In 2016, a fire killed four and displaced a thousand, destroying 22% of the capital, Funchal.  In 2017, it was worse.

Funchal is by the sea but as you inland, it flows up the hills.  There is a cable car that takes you up over the city into the hills above.  We travelled to the Monte Palace Garden by cable car and spent a very enjoyable time in the gardens before taking the toboggan down the hill, which is an amazing experience!  We were there in September 2016 and the fires were very much on people's minds and very evident from the cable car.  

It had quite an impact on me. It's easy to see a photo of a disaster and struggle to imagine the extent of it.  In Cornwall  we don't suffer from fires in the same way, we don't need to worry about fires that burn the land so devastatingly they displace so many and kill.  We do however get gorse fires, which are scary enough.

Camborne and Redruth are two towns, joined by villages grown together over time, sandwiched between the A30, the main road through Cornwall and Carn Brea, a long ridge of a hill.  Carn Brea is one of my favourite places.  It has a castle folly built in to a granite rock stack and a huge memorial cross, both of which are very much local landmarks and can be seen for many miles.  The hill has many other features including the remains of an old quarry and ancient hut circles.  In 2015 the gorse caught fire due to a disposable barbeque and the hill burnt.  I missed the fire but the aftermath the next day, I remember well.

The hill has recovered well and the casual observer would not know it had happened now but articles at the time made it clear the fire had caused long term habitat damage.

Fire can be good for some habitats, bringing needed renewal and fertility, but humanities interference causes fires to start and increases the scale of them.  In recent years there seem to be increasing numbers of devastating fires.  Last year, the Amazon burnt along with Siberia, California and Australia.

Fire may be just a chemical reaction, one that brings us comfort, light, warmth and the means to cook food, but when the reaction is out of control....  It's terrifying and beautiful...  

I gathered some pictures on pinterest.