Why are Wildfires Getting Stronger?

Written By Teacher: Liz Ransom

As a High School Spanish teacher and student newspaper advisor, Liz has taught for over 20 years and has served as World Languages Department Chair and K-6 summer camp activities leader. She has worked in Ohio, Maine, New Jersey, Maryland, and Chile.

Wildfires in the news may prompt questions from curious students, and teachers can help them sort climate fact from climate fiction. Students in grades 8-12 can analyze wildfire data with these 6 graphs, or explore the topic through multiple disciplines in this lively multi-day lesson. This video explains how restoring traditional Indigenous burn practices can lower wildfire risk. K-5 students will benefit from the American Red Cross ebook and video Prepare with Pedro! Wildfire, available in both English and Spanish.

Written By: MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative

The MIT Climate Change Engagement Program, a part of MIT Climate HQ, provides the public with nonpartisan, easy-to-understand, and scientifically-grounded information on climate change and its solutions.

Wildfires are becoming larger and more severe as a result of climate change, as forests in arid parts of the world become hotter and drier. In the mid-1980s, wildfires in the United States consumed just under two million acres a year on average; now, eight million acres burn each year. We can expect to see more wildfires in the future, especially in regions with a Mediterranean climate and low rainfall in the summer, such as the western U.S. and Canada, Spain and Portugal, Chile, and parts of coastal Australia.

Wildfire-prone regions are warming — the western U.S. has warmed as much as 3.5℉ since 1901. This leads to more droughts that dry out forests. In California, more than 147 million trees have died due to extreme droughts since 2010. Dead plants and trees catch fire more easily than live plants, and provide more fuel for fires to burn. Climate change is also expanding the range of some invasive insects and plant diseases, creating more dead plants for fires to consume.

And there’s a feedback loop: wildfires intensify climate change by releasing large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. California's 2018 wildfire season released nearly as much CO2 as did the state's electric power plants that year. During Australia’s 2020 bushfire season, wildfires pumped out more CO2 than the 116 least-polluting countries emit in a year.