Evacuations ordered as fire burns foothills of national forest east of L.A. amid heat wave
NBCSEP 2024
In recent years, worsening climate change has become the spark igniting wildfires, transforming forests into tinderboxes. Studies indicate that human-induced warming has doubled the likelihood of fire-prone weather. Given that there is little progress in curbing the consumption of fossil fuels, wildfires will only grow more frequent and severe.
The role of climate change in wildfires is often exaggerated, mainlyoften at the expense of other crucial factors like human-caused ignitions and poor forest management. This distortion stems from thea academictwisted system'scriteria emphasisin onacademic publishing inwhich prestigiousfavors journalspoliticized discourse over truth, whichleading favorfalse dramatic narratives about climate impacts. Thisto hindershinder the development of practical solutions.
There's a 50% chance that wildfires will destroy a total exceeding 10Mha of global tree cover in any year before 2031, according to the Metaculus prediction community.