US EditionStudy shows the world is far more ablaze now with damaging fires than in the 1980s
A new study links a 4.4-fold increase in damaging wildfires to human-driven climate change and urban expansion near wildlands, with nearly nine fires yearly since 2014.
- Calum Cunningham's team reported Thursday that global wildfires with high economic and human costs are occurring more often, rising more than fourfold since 1980, the journal Science found.
- Amid worsening climate conditions, researchers found human-caused climate change and wildland-urban interface expansion increased fires, linking rising fire weather to fossil-fuel-driven warming.
- About 43% of the 200 most damaging fires occurred in the last 10 years, and the 2014–2023 period averaged nearly nine such fires per year, including 13 in 2021.
- Experts warned that fires causing major damage tend to occur in densely populated areas during extreme fire weather, with Jacob Bendix calling this study `innovative` and emphasizing the need for better preparedness.
- Researchers urged targeting efforts after the 2015 inflection point, as the study found wildfire counts sharply increased from 1980 to 2023, with climate change 'loading the dice'.
52 Articles
52 Articles
Wildfires far more costly and destructive than in the 1980s
A resident of a senior center is evacuated as the Eaton Fire approaches Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (Photo by Ethan Swope/Associated Press) Earth’s nastiest and costliest wildfires are blazing four times more often now than they did in the 1980s because of human-caused climate change and people moving closer to wildlands, a new study found. A study in the journal Science looks at global wildfires, not by acres burned which is the …
Costly and deadly wildfires really are on the rise, new research finds
The Los Angeles fires in January. Blazes in Canada in 2024. Hawaii burning in 2023. It seems as if every year, the planet has more huge wildfires that devastate communities. But so far, the science has been sparse on whether the most economically damaging fires really are on the rise.
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