Wildfires In California Are Getting Bigger, More Destructive
Human-caused climate change is largely responsible for an explosion in wildfire devastation in California over the past quarter century and the problem is only going to get worse in coming years, according to a study from the University of California. Researchers found that between 1996 and 2020, wildfires consumed five times as much land in California as they did in the 25 years prior from 1971 to 1996. “The 10 largest fires in California history have all occurred in the past two decades, and five of those have happened since 2020,” said Amir AghaKouchak, a UC Irvine professor of civil and environmental engineering. “Through our study, it has become clear that [human-caused] climate change is the major driver of this increase in wildfire damage.” For a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from several UC schools used climate modeling and found that “anthropogenic forcing,” conditions created by humans burning fossil fuels, accounted for a 172% expansion in burned areas over natural conditions. Some of the key factors, they said, were below-average precipitation, high temperatures in spring months, lower spring snowpack, hotter summer temperatures, more frequent heat extremes and fewer rainy days during fire seasons.
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