It's Not Just California
It's a World Wide Problem
It feels like we are getting used to the Earth being on fire. Recently, more than 70 wildfires burned simultaneously in Greece. In early 2024, Chile suffered its worst wildfire season in history, with more than 130 people killed. Last year, Canada’s record-breaking wildfires burned from March to November and, in August, flames devastated the island of Maui, in Hawaii. And the list goes on and on.
Watching the news, it certainly feels like catastrophic extreme wildfires are happening more often, and unfortunately this feeling has now been confirmed as correct. A new study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution shows that the number and intensity of the most extreme wildfires on Earth have doubled over the past two decades.
The authors of the new study, researchers at the University of Tasmania, first calculated the energy released by different fires over 21 years from 2003 to 2023. They did this by using a satellite-based sensor which can identify heat from fires, measuring the energy released as “fire radiative power”.
The researchers identified a total of 30 million fires (technically 30 million “fire events”, which can include some clusters of fires grouped together). They then selected the top 2,913 with the most energy released, that is, the 0.01% “most extreme” wildfires. Their work shows that these extreme wildfires are becoming more frequent, with their number doubling over the past two decades. Since 2017, the Earth has experienced the six years with the highest number of extreme wildfires (all years except 2022).
Here in California
The bottom line is this is a multifactor problem. It’s not just climate change, it’s not just the drought, it’s not just dieback. It’s management activities that have suppressed fires for over a century. Yet funding is getting less available.
But sadly most forest fires are started by humans.
That's why we're here. We are a non-profit company that aids it helping state and local fire departments to prevent wild fires.
If you see someone deliberatley starting a fire:
CALL 911
+ Get a description and license number
+ Location or GPS on your phone
+ Description of the person
+ A picture of the person starting the fire
Law enforcement can't prosicute any suspect unless there's clear evidence of that person actually starting the fire.
Don't put yourself in any danger!