During last year’s fire season, some 3.9 million square kilometers of land burned around the world.
According to a new report, the forest fires unprecedented events that occurred last year in Canada and in some areas of the Amazon were at least three times more likely due to climate change.
In Greece, where flames are currently burning around Athensthe probability of occurrence forest fires doubled due to climate change.
The State of the Wildfire report, published by the University of East Anglia, the UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology, the Met Office and the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, is the first annual report of extreme fires.
It analyzes those that took place between March 2023 and February 2024, the causes that caused them and whether they could be predicted. The researchers also analyzed to what extent he climate change could increase the risk of similar events occurring in the future.
It was found that, had it not been a quiet year in the African savannahs, fire emissions worldwide would have been the highest of any season on record since 2003. During last year’s fire season, fires burned around the world about 3.9 million square kilometers.
In 2023, unprecedented forest fires occurred around the world
The fires of Canada provoked more than 230,000 evacuations in 2023 and eight firefighters lost their lives.
In South America There was also a unusually high number of fires during the 2023-24 season, especially in the northern parts of the continent. The fires in the Brazilian state of Amazonas, Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela caused the amazon region You will experience some of the worst air quality on the planet.
The forest fires of Chile, Hawaii y Greece They also spread quickly and burned brightly. 131 people died in Chile, 100 in Hawaii and 19 in Greece.
“Last year we saw wildfires killing people, destroying property and infrastructure, causing mass evacuationsthreatening livelihoods and damaging vital ecosystems,” said lead author of this year’s analysis, Dr. Matthew Jones, a researcher at the UAE’s Tyndall Center for Climate Change Research.
“Forest fires are increasingly frequent and intense as the climate warms, and both the sociedad like the environment suffer the consequences“.
He adds that in Canada The equivalent of a decade of carbon emissions from fires were recorded in a single season: more than 2 billion tons of CO2. These emissions further increase atmospheric CO2 concentrations, exacerbating global warming.
How does climate change increase the likelihood of wildfires?
In addition to cataloging the impact of last year’s fires, the report also focuses on the causes of fires extremes in three regions: Canada, Western Amazon and Greece.
In all three cases, it was found that the fire-prone climate (characterized by hot and dry conditions that make ignition of flames more likely) has changed significantly due to the climate change.
In 2023, the extreme weather conditions They caused three times as many fires in Canada and twice as many in Greece. In the Amazon, the dry and hot weather made the fires 20 times more likely.
In Canada and Greece, a combination of adverse weather conditions and abundant dry vegetation caused a significant increase in the number and extent of fires last year.
ADVERTISINGThe researchers also used next-generation attribution tools to determine how climate change had altered the area burned by fires compared to what they would be like in a world without climate change.
“It is virtually certain that the 2023 fires in Canada and the Amazon were older due to climate change“says Chantelle Burton, a climate scientist at the Met Office.
“We are already seeing the impact of the climate change in the weather patterns around the world, and this is disrupting normal fire regimes in many regions. It is important that fire research studies how climate change is affecting fires, which will allow us to know howhow they may change in the future“.
Reducing emissions could help limit forest fires
According to the authors of the report, the frequency and intensity of the extreme wildfireswill increase between now and the end of the centuryespecially if greenhouse gas emissions remain high.
ADVERTISING“As long as emissions continue to increase of greenhouse gases, will increase he risk of extreme wildfires,” explains UKCEH fire scientist Dr Douglas Kelley.
But the increased likelihood of future fires may be minimized by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and fixing ambitious carbon targets.
“Whichever emissions scenario we follow, extreme wildfire risks will increase in Canada, underscoring that society must not only reduce emissions, but also adapt to changing wildfire risks“Adds Kelley.
“These projections highlight the urgent need to rapidly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and manage vegetation to reduce the riskand the effects of increasingly serious forest fires on society and ecosystems.”
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