Climate Change Is Making Fire Weather Worse for World's Forests (nytimes.com)
(Tuesday July 22, 2025 @03:00AM (msmash)
from the ripple-effect dept.)
- Reference: 0178433892
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/07/21/2218208/climate-change-is-making-fire-weather-worse-for-worlds-forests
- Source link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/climate/extreme-fire-weather-forests.html
An anonymous reader shares a report:
> In 2023 and 2024, the hottest years on record, more than 78 million acres of forests [1]burned around the globe . The fires sent veils of smoke and several billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, subjecting millions of people to poor air quality. Extreme forest-fire years are becoming more common because of climate change, new research suggests.
>
> "Climate change is loading the dice for extreme fire seasons like we've seen," said John Abatzoglou, a climate scientist at the University of California Merced. "There are going to be more fires like this." The area of forest canopy lost to fire during 2023 and 2024 was at least two times greater than the annual average of the previous nearly two decades, according to [2]a new study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
>
> The researchers used imagery from the LANDSAT satellite network to determine how tree cover had changed from 2002 to 2024, and compared that with satellite detections of fire activity to see how much canopy loss was because of fire. Globally, the area of land burned by wildfires has decreased in recent decades, mostly because humans are transforming savannas and grasslands into less flammable landscapes. But the area of forests burned has gone up.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/climate/extreme-fire-weather-forests.html
[2] https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2505418122
> In 2023 and 2024, the hottest years on record, more than 78 million acres of forests [1]burned around the globe . The fires sent veils of smoke and several billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, subjecting millions of people to poor air quality. Extreme forest-fire years are becoming more common because of climate change, new research suggests.
>
> "Climate change is loading the dice for extreme fire seasons like we've seen," said John Abatzoglou, a climate scientist at the University of California Merced. "There are going to be more fires like this." The area of forest canopy lost to fire during 2023 and 2024 was at least two times greater than the annual average of the previous nearly two decades, according to [2]a new study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
>
> The researchers used imagery from the LANDSAT satellite network to determine how tree cover had changed from 2002 to 2024, and compared that with satellite detections of fire activity to see how much canopy loss was because of fire. Globally, the area of land burned by wildfires has decreased in recent decades, mostly because humans are transforming savannas and grasslands into less flammable landscapes. But the area of forests burned has gone up.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/climate/extreme-fire-weather-forests.html
[2] https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2505418122
Until (Score:2, Insightful)
Until the wealthy find their property is uninsurable, nothing will change.
Whilst greedy people can make money at the expense of others, or move the problem somewhere else in the globe, nothing is going to happen. It is terribly sad. Culturally we need to look at greed differently, it needs to become shamed so that money doesn't get you nice things.
Won't change then either. (Score:3)
The wealthy can absorb the damage or complete destruction of their property. What they would not want to do is sabotage the circumstances that made them wealthy enough to acquire the property. The holders of wealth aren't likely to want to destabilize the world order so they can hold onto property that's at risk. They'll push that risk downstream first.
First World Problem (Re:Until) (Score:1)
> Until the wealthy find their property is uninsurable, nothing will change.
That is a claim that sounds like global warming is a first world problem. Am I wrong?
We have something of a dilemma here, do we not? For anyone to be concerned with global warming then we'd have to get them to a point where their needs with some greater impact and urgency have been met. That means such a person has food, clean water, an education, a job, a place to live, clothing, some minimal semblance of medical care, some minimal semblance of safety and peace, and reliable and affordable energy. That