It’s Always Fire Season Now
By Manuela Andreoni 11/16/23
It’s the end of fire season in the Amazon, where I am, and I can smell the smoke from burning trees. So can millions of people in Indonesia, India and the United States.
Read more 
WILDFIRES
WILDFIRES
The science could not be clearer. The burning of fossil fuels is making the Earth hotter. That makes trees and other vegetation drier. And those conditions make wildfires start more easily, burn hotter, and spread faster. These hot, dry conditions increase the likelihood that wildfires will be more intense and burn longer, making them harder to put out.
Highly detrimental to the environment, people’s health and livelihoods, wildfires are destroying forests, agriculture, and communities. Accelerating in their devastation year after year, by mid-September, 2020, five of the 10 largest wildfires in California’s history – including THE largest ever – had happened. 79 large wildfires were still actively burning in California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming leveling acreage the size of New Jersey, with one in every 33 acres burned in the state of California. In Oregon, ten percent of the population had been evacuated and critical populations of endangered species and native habitats incinerated. It is questionable whether they will ever recover. Unimaginably, the smoke travelled 3,000 miles to Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland and over the Atlantic.
Extraordinary photographs were published in the New York Times on September 10, 2020.
CURRENT NEWS
KEY RESOURCES
The US is spending billions to reduce forest fire risks – we mapped the hot spots where treatment offers the biggest payoff for people and climate
09/06/23
The U.S. government is investing over US$7 billion in the coming years to try to manage the nation’s escalating wildfire crisis. That includes a commitment to treat at least 60 million acres in the next…
How to pick the right air purifier for your home as wildfire smoke descends
06/08/23
In recent years, wildfire smoke has ravaged large swaths of the United States — from Northern California’s devastating 2020 wildfire season, to the orange-brown haze that has drifted from Canada into the eastern half of…
People who never had to think about wildfire before need to start
06/07/23
Right now, eastern North America sits under a blanket of choking smoke and an eerie orange haze more appropriate to the surface of Mars than the Great Lakes or Atlantic Seaboard.
Wildfire Weather
05/24/23
Climate change is worsening wildfires across the United States and putting more people at risk. Warming from heat-trapping pollution is affecting weather conditions in ways that increase the risks of wildfire. Long-term warming trends are…
Wildfires
09/13/22
Climate change is increasing the size, frequency, and intensity of wildfires as well as the length of the fire season. All fire needs to burn is an ignition source and plenty of fuel. While climate…
As Wildfires Grow, Millions of Homes Are Being Built in Harm’s Way
09/09/22
Across the Western United States, wildfires are growing larger and more severe as global warming intensifies. At the same time, new data shows, more Americans than ever are moving to parts of the country more…
California’s wildfire season is here. How to get ready
08/27/21
The Great Plains have tornadoes. The Southeast has hurricanes. And California has earthquakes and wildfires. More than 4 million acres were burned last year in what was the state’s worst wildfire season to date. So…
Facts + Statistics: Wildfires
09/16/20
As many as 90 percent of wildland fires in the United States are caused by people, according to the U.S. Department of Interior. Some human-caused fires result from campfires left unattended, the burning of debris,…
Wildfires and Climate Change: Visualizing the Connection in Five Sets of Photos and Charts
09/08/20
Every year, millions of acres of land are consumed by fire in the United States. By raising temperatures, melting snow sooner, and drying soils and forests, climate change is fueling the problem. Here’s what we…
Eden Reforestation Project
11/18/19
Eden Reforestation projects reduces extreme poverty and restores healthy forests by employing local villagers to plant millions of trees every year.
Global Forest Watch
09/09/19
Forest Monitoring Designed for Action: Global Forest Watch offers the latest data, technology and tools that empower people everywhere to better protect forests.
MORE NEWS
Reagan Library spared from flames as powerful wind gusts drive new wildfire near Los Angeles
By Scott Wilson, 10/31/19
Hurricane-force gusts and single-digit humidity levels combined Wednesday to spark a number of fires across Southern California, including one here that threatened the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for several morning hours.
Read more California’s new normal: How the climate crisis is fueling wildfires and changing life in the Golden State
By Ray Sanchez and Brandon Miller 10/30/19
More than a dozen wildfires displace hundreds of thousands of Californians. Nearly 30 million people from California to Arizona wake up to red-flag warnings that signal conditions ripe for fire danger. Utilities throw entire communities…
Read more Fire In Paradise
By Jane McMullen 10/29/19
In November 2018, the deadliest wildfire in California state history burned an area the size of Chicago, destroyed around 30,000 people’s homes, decimated the town of Paradise and killed 85 people.
Read more Brown: California fires show ‘the horror’ world will face from climate change
By CARLA MARINUCCI 10/28/19
As Californians suffer widespread power outages and mass evacuations due to wildfire dangers, former Gov. Jerry Brown is warning that the dark scenario may be “only the beginning” for Americans across the country — unless…
Read more The Quiet, Intentional Fires of Northern California
By Kiliii Yüyan 10/16/19
In the wake of catastrophic wildfires like the one in 2018 that burned the California city of Paradise, wildfire management has become a pressing topic, to say the least. Especially under scrutiny is the US…
Read more A Night of Triumph; The firestorm surrounding Safari West
By Paige Peterson 10/09/19
On October 8, 2017, the worst fire in California’s history was destroying drought-ridden Northern California. The 400 acres of Safari West, a preserve and home to 1,000 exotic animals was in its path. All guests and…
Read more Across America, climate change is already disrupting lives
By Zoeann Murphy and Chris Mooney 09/26/19
The continental United States is 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than it was a century ago. Seas at the coasts are nine inches higher. The damage is mounting from these fundamental changes, and Americans are affected…
Read more “There’s no doubt about it” — Researchers suggest increased fire activity, and cost, due to climate change in Alaska
By Derek Minemyer 09/02/19
Researchers in Alaska say climate change is shifting the way the state manages resources, including around wildfires. They predict a warmer climate will bring bigger and hotter fires and a higher cost of suppressing those…
Read more A Trailblazing Plan to Fight California Wildfires
By Nicola Twilley 08/19/19
Throughout the twentieth century, federal policy focussed on putting out fires as quickly as possible, but preventing megafires requires a different approach.
Read more Over 1,000 firefighters battle flames in Western states
07/29/19
More than 300 firefighters battled three blazes in western Montana yesterday, and Gov. Steve Bullock (D) declared a state of emergency to allow truck drivers to work longer hours to deliver supplies to the lines.
Read more Arctic wildfires in June equivalent to Sweden’s annual emissions – U.N.
By Tom Miles 07/12/19
Arctic wildfires, some the size of 100,000 soccer pitches, emitted as much carbon dioxide (CO2) last month as the country of Sweden does in a whole year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Friday.
Read more Beach pollution surges after massive wildfires and heavy rains, report finds
By Hannah Fry 06/27/19
If there was one upside to the severe drought that plagued California for seven years, it was how the lack of rain and dirty runoff improved beach water quality. But ocean pollution has surged once…
Read more Smoke from US wildfires boosting health risk for millions
By Matthew Brown 06/25/19
Climate change in the Western U.S. means more intense and frequent wildfires churning out waves of smoke that scientists say will sweep across the continent to affect tens of millions of people and cause a…
Read more Blame Utilities for Wildfires, But Blame Everyone Else Too
By Matt Simon 06/21/19
It's hard to feel sorry for the California utility PG&E. Consider that its equipment sparked 17 major fires in 2017 alone, according to a Cal Fire spokesperson. Last year, it was responsible for igniting the…
Read more California Wildfires: How PG&E Ignored Risks in Favor of Profits
By Ivan Penn, Peter Eavis and James Glanz 03/18/19
Five of the 10 most destructive fires in California since 2015 have been linked to PG&E’s electrical network. Regulators have found that in many fires, PG&E violated state law or could have done more to make its…
Read more Wildfires, hurricanes and other extreme weather cost the nation 247 lives, nearly $100 billion in damage during 2018
By Chris Mooney 02/06/19
Experts say that climate change might already be fueling an increase in the number of billion-dollar disasters.
Read more Cities Have Turned Into Fire Bait—But We Can Fix Them
By Matt Simon 11/26/18
The Northern California city of Paradise is gone—the Camp Fire, by far the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in state history, has reduced home after home to ashes. It conjures images of a tsunami of…
Read more How California’s Efforts to Prevent Wildfires Reflect a National Crisis on Climate Change
By Carolyn Kormann 11/26/18
The California assemblyman Jim Wood spent most of the past week in the Sacramento morgue, analyzing the charred remains of human teeth. Wood is a forensic-dentistry expert, and has worked on some of the nation’s…
Read more Driven by climate change, fire reshapes US West
By Matthew Brown 09/03/18
Wildfires in the U.S. have charred more than 10,000 square miles so far this year, an area larger than the state of Maryland, with large fires still burning in every Western state including many that…
Read more Pollution watch: summer’s deadly wildfires cause pollution worldwide
By Gary Fuller 08/30/18
Widespread wildfires have taken lives and destroyed habitats as well as causing air pollution.
Read more We won’t stop California’s wildfires if we don’t talk about climate change
By the Editorial Board 08/08/18
California has battled four of its five largest wildfires since 2012, and scientists have concluded that climate change has increased the frequency of extreme weather and will continue to do so.
Read more Fire and water: July’s global weather extremes – in pictures
By Eric Hilaire and Joanna Ruck 08/01/18
Heatwaves are setting temperature records; Europe suffered its deadliest wildfire in more than a century; 90 large fires in the western US have destroyed homes and forced the evacuation of at least 37,000 people; flood-inducing…
Read more