Scorched Earth: The Past, Present and Future of Human Influences on Wildfires

Scorched Earth: The Past, Present and Future of Human Influences on Wildfires
Wed, 14 Sep 2011 12:28:00 -0500

Fires have continuously occurred on Earth for at least the last 400 million years. But since the 1970s, the frequency of wildfires has increased at least four-fold, and the total size of burn areas has increased at least six-fold in the western United States alone. Steadily rising, the U.S.'s bill for fighting wildfires now totals $1.5 billion per year.

How much of the increases in the frequency and size of fires are due to human activities? No one knows for sure.  But a paper in ...

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