John Lees

As is now standard whenever there is a major wildfire, the media trot out the assumption that wildfire is a worsening problem globally.
I will accept that arson, accidentally caused fires, the number of people living in harm's way and the value of property damaged may well be increasing.
But, has wildfire extent increased around the world?
According to this paper published by the Royal Society... NO!!

Global trends in wildfire and its impacts: perceptions versus realities in a changing world | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
royalsocietypublishing.org

Tim adds:

"the value of property damaged may well be increasing" Yes, because so many more people are living in places where they did not used to live and thus at greater risk of damage. it's a function of population rise. And of course we know they aren't culling the forests these days the way they used to . Forests - and grasslands - burn in a state of nature. We suppressed that by removing fuel. But now this idea we need a "pristine" old growth forest left as nature intended means going back to large destructive fires. All of this is a coefficient of a natural process we used to control. The same is true for flooding; we are building in flood plains now and then surprised when flood damage is greater than ever. It's not warming but human stupidity.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 12:13 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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