Nice, new example of junk science disseminated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)!
Correlation/coincidence is not causation!
When ideology and bias trump science!
The claim that "As climate warms and humans build in more undeveloped environments" is ludicrous!
Caveat: I did not read the paper.
"Climate change and land mismanagement are creating increasingly fire-prone built and natural environments." Nice try of association!
What about arsonists? What about increasing population and business density in wildfire prone areas? What about insufficient or incompetent firefighting departments? What about lack of adequate forest management to prevent fires? Etc. etc.
"... The team compiled and analyzed wildfire event data from 1980 to 2023 that represented the 200 largest economic losses compared to affected countries’ GDPs, and/or caused 10 or more fatalities. Indeed, they found that major economic disasters had increased more than fourfold in the four-decade span , while major fatality events increased threefold. And 43% of the biggest economic losses occurred just in the past decade, and billion-dollar disasters occurred across four continents (North America, Asia, Australia, and Europe). The Mediterranean forest biome, which populates much of Europe, southern South America, South Africa, southern Australia, and the western United States, was particularly susceptible to wildfires.
Increases in key climate indices like drought and dry air also correlated with increased wildfires—a combination called “disaster weather” that further links climate change to natural disasters. ..."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
As climate warms and humans build in more undeveloped environments [???], the threat of costly wildfire disasters is thought to be increasing. Cunningham et al. examined data about the global distribution, frequency, and associated climate conditions of the most lethal and costly wildfire disasters from 1980 to 2023, finding that disaster risk was highest in regions near relatively affluent, populated areas, and that the frequency of economically disastrous wildfires increased sharply after 2015. They also found that major disasters coincided with extreme climatic conditions. ...
Abstract
Climate change and land mismanagement [???] are creating increasingly fire-prone built and natural environments. However, despite worsening fire seasons, evidence is lacking globally for trends in socially and economically disastrous wildfires, partly due to sparse systematic records.
Using a 44-year dataset (1980 to 2023) we analyze the distribution, trends, and climatic conditions connected with the most lethal and costly wildfires.
Disastrous wildfires occurred globally over this period but were concentrated in the Mediterranean and temperate conifer biomes.
Disaster risk was highest where highly energetic daily fire events intersected affluent, populated areas.
Economic disasters increased sharply from 2015 onward, with 43% of the 200 most damaging events occurring in the last decade. Disasters coincided with increasingly extreme climatic conditions, highlighting the urgent need to adapt to a more fire-prone world."
Climate-linked escalation of societally disastrous wildfires (no public access)
Climate-linked escalation of societally disastrous wildfires (preprint, open access, however it seems to be an early, outdated version)
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