Forest Fires and Climate Change: A Dangerous Link

Climate change and forest fires are closely related. Climate change has caused a rise in global temperature, making places drier as water evaporates more often. This leads to more accumulation of fuels such as dry leaves on forest floor and makes it easier for a fire to start given the high temperature that surrounds.

This means that forest fires can both be more frequent due to the easiness for a fire to start in high temperature and greater in magnitude given the more abundant supply of fuel with lots of dried fallen leaves.

The burning of forests can create devastating consequences. Other than causing the loss of wildlife habitats, burning forests also cause the release of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and the loss of valuable carbon sinks. The latter two consequences then contributes to further accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and further accelerates climate change in a positive feedback loop.
The only way to break this dangerous link and mitigate associated consequences will be to mitigate climate change and to change the fundamental human activities that are causing it.