Recent wildfires sweeping across the globe at an alarming rate and intensity have highlighted their role as a major indicator of the ongoing climate emergency. This phenomenon is especially prevalent in Europe, which is witnessing the highest rate of climate change on a global scale.
Current research outlines a complex network of factors leading to the rampant spread of these wildfires, emphasising the need for greater preparedness as conditions worsen. The only potential deterrent to this escalating crisis is a concerted and collective human effort to reduce temperatures. Fires affecting vast regions, such as those currently burning in Greece and throughout vast swathes of California and Canada, not only pose lethal threats to local communities, but are also leading to air pollution on an international scale.
Over the past two decades, wildfires have played an increasingly significant role in the alarming cycle of carbon emissions, contributing to increased CO2 in the atmosphere and further driving global warming. The simultaneous occurrence of extreme heat, lengthy heatwaves, and drought conditions has led to an unparalleled escalation in uncontrollable fires. There is strong evidence underlining the influence of human-led climate change on the intensity and frequency of these wildfires.
Reports suggest that the wildfires experienced by Canada and the Amazon last year were tripled in likelihood by climate change and precipitated a significant rise in global CO2 emissions. This data was part of a State of Wildfires report released recently, the first of its kind to record extreme wildfire events. The report, focusing on the fire season from March 2023 to February 2024, analyses the causes of these events, their predictability, and the associated risks under various projected climate change scenarios. The research also advocates for further climate attribution studies. This comprehensive report has been compiled by climate scientists from various institutions including the University of East Anglia (UAE), the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, the UK Met Office, and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.
The recently witnessed daunting 25m wall of fire descending upon Athens serves as a chilling foreshadowing of the potential disastrous future scenarios. In Madeira, hundreds of firefighters are engaged in the relentless battle against wildfire.
Global wildfires have elevated by 16% above the average, discharging an astonishing 8.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The Canadian boreal forests experienced fires burning at an overwhelming rate of more than nine times the average of the preceding twenty years, contributing to almost a quarter of these emissions. The Amazon region, covering Northern parts of South America including Brazil’s Amazonas state and the surrounding regions in Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela, had a significantly high occurrence of fires. This led to some of the worst global air quality ratings being experienced in the Amazon region. The Arctic has seen a growing prevalence of wildfires, becoming a regular and widespread phenomenon.
Underscoring these trends, research by World Weather Attribution discovered that the destructive fires incidences in June in Brazil’s Pantanal were intensified by 40 per cent due to climate change. Consequently, this radical increase in wildfires possibly resulted in the deaths of millions of wildlife in the world’s largest wetland. As noted by Dr Matthew Jones of UEA, wildfires are affecting communities, destructing infrastructure, causing large-scale evacuations, threatening livelihoods and destructing crucial ecosystems. Society and the environment are experiencing the adverse impacts of the increasingly frequent and devastating wildfires buoyed by global warming.
The depletion of carbon stocks from boreal forests in Canada and tropical forests in South America has long-term repercussions on our planet’s climate conditions. Forests need anything from decades to even centuries to recover from fire incidents, meaning that extreme fire years like those of 2023-24 could cause a long-term carbon storage deficit.
Predictions from climate models hint a rising impact from brutal wildfires by the end of this century, especially in scenarios where greenhouse gases continue to be emitted at high levels. These projected trends underline the urgent need to fast-track the reduction of greenhouse emissions and manage vegetation to mitigate risk and impact of exacerbated wildfires on society and ecosystems.
Several factors drive fire occurrence including climate-influenced weather conditions, vegetation density affected by climate and land management, and ignition opportunities determined by human activities and lightning strikes. The main lesson is the need for emissions reduction to cool temperatures while scaling up adaptive measures in readiness for unavoidable consequences. The EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism is proving valuable through practical responses by pooling resources such as planes and firefighters, deployable when governments need assistance during natural disasters.
Survey findings suggest a lack of willingness among individuals to act against climate change. This could be attributed to the perception that Ireland is immune to the impacts of this global issue. Ireland faces significant risks, particularly from extreme weather events that could result in devastating floods. Furthermore, the country’s vulnerability to wildfires is exposed with just a few weeks of drought. The current measures in place are not sufficient to tackle these issues, and a more concerted effort is required, particularly in implementing nature-based solutions. Both Europe and globally, a similar lack of preparedness to handle climate risk is evident.