Periodic wildland fires play a useful role in the life cycle of a forest. However, dry conditions caused by global warming have increased wildfires’ frequency and severity, leading to loss of life and crops, and deterioration in air quality.
Periodic wildland fires play a useful role in the life cycle of a forest. However, dry conditions caused by global warming have increased wildfires’ frequency and severity, leading to loss of life and crops, and deterioration in air quality.
Periodic wildland fires, which occur naturally, play a useful role in the life cycle of a forest and its ecosystem. Climate change has significantly increased the risk and extent of wildfires, particularly in the Western United States. Warmer and drier conditions, shifts in plant communities, and changes in rain and snow patterns have impacted the likelihood that fires will start more often and burn more intensely than ever before. Five of the six largest wildfires on record occurred in 2020 across California and Oregon, resulting in catastrophic damage, burning twice the acreage of 2019 and leading to loss of life, destruction of crops, and deterioration in air quality. Australia also battled its largest bushfire on record in 2020, while parts of the Arctic, the Amazon, and central Asia experienced historically significant blazes.