The likelihood of catastrophic wildfires globally could increase more than 50 per cent by the turn of the century, according to the report from the UN Environment Program, and governments are ill prepared to confront the impacts.
Indonesia’s peatlands, California’s forests and, now, vast swathes of Argentine wetland have all been ravaged by extreme wildfires, heralding a fiery future and the dire need to prevent it.
With climate change triggering droughts and farmers clearing forests, the number of extreme wildfires is expected to increase 30 percent within the next 28 years. Moreover, they are now scorching environments that were not prone to burning in the past, such as the arctic’s tundra and the Amazon rainforest.
“We’ve seen a great increase in recent fires in northern Syria, northern Siberia, the eastern side of Australia and India,” Australian government bushfire scientist
STORY: A stark warning from experts: "Current knowledge and predictions indicate that globally we will see a higher prevalence of more severe fires, larger fires with more impacts on the environment and society." A new report released Wednesday (February 23) by the UN Environment Programme found that the number of extreme wildfires is expected to increase 30% within the next 28 years. Fire scientist Paulo Fernandes, is a contributing author of the report. "People must be, must learn and must be prepared to accept in a way to live with fire, minimising exposure, for example by choosing where they live, how they build their houses, how they prepare the surroundings of the houses. So all these mitigation procedures are extremely important both in terms of land management, forest management, fire prevention in general and also from the community side, the human side, how communities are prepared to deal with fire in case fire happens." The report also found that the con
LONDON Indonesia's peatlands, California's forests, and, now, vast swathes of Argentine wetland have all been ravaged by extreme wildfires, heralding a