Climate Change: A focus on wildfires

Summer is coming in Munich and people are already invading the green grass of the English Garden, playing flunky ball in their colourful swimsuits to enjoy the nice weather. The sun shines and it is hard to believe that Munich is as warm as my hometown these days; on Friday the temperature will reach 31 degrees. As an Italian accustomed to sunny days, I should be over the moon right now. Yet, this extreme heat makes me feel worried about the future of our planet.

Climate change and wildfires

Human-induced climate change is causing dangerous natural disasters and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world. Among the thousand of dangerous effects it causes, it can raise the risk of wildfires, defined as “any type of uncontrolled fire that is spreading across wildland, including pastureland, forests, grasslands and peatlands”.

High temperature increases evaporation, causing moisture to be drawn out from plants on the land. So, when a fire starts in an area with dry vegetation, it spreads rapidly. According to Dr Megan Kirchmeier-Young, a researcher of climate extremes at the Government of Canada, warming temperatures can also make the fire season longer (the time in which severe wildfires are most likely to happen). She explains:

“Climate change is affecting wildfires in two main ways. The first is an increase in the risk or the likelihood of wildfire. The second is longer fire seasons – and this is mostly coming from warming temperatures”.

Global impact

The report of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), dubbed “Spreading like Wildfire”, states that climate change will make fires more frequent and severe, with a global increase of 30% by the end of 2050, and 50% by the end of the century. “Uncontrollable and devastating wildfires are becoming an expected part of the seasonal calendars in many parts of the world” said Andrew Sullivan, one of the authors of the report.

Globally, wildfires have many impacts on humans, wildlife and the economy. They are a major driver of greenhouse gas emissions and are also responsible for 5-8% of the 3.3 million annual premature deaths from poor air quality: wildfire smoke contains particulate matter, which have adverse effects upon the human respiratory system. Another important health effect of wildfires is psychiatric diseases and disorders. Both adults and children from countries ranging from the United States and Canada to Greece and Australia who were directly and indirectly affected by wildfires, were found by researchers to demonstrate several different mental conditions linked to their experience with the wildfires. These include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and phobias.
The damage to the economy and wildlife is no less serious, as fires push some animal and plant species towards extinction. A recent example is Australia’s 2020 bushfires, which are estimated to have wiped out billions of domestic and wild animals.

The situation in Italy

In 2021 Italy became the first country in Europe for the number of fires that broke out, second only to Greece.

Over 158 thousand hectares of woods and forests burned, an extension equal to the surface of Rome, Milan and Naples together. The numbers come from the “Fires and desertification” report, edited by Europa Verde. The report states that it will take at least 15v years to restore the lost woods and the Mediterranean shrubland.

Wildfires threaten the Italian ecosystem, as they include the death of millions of animals, burned alive in forest fires. In addition, the loss of olive trees, plantations, and agricultural machinery, damages the national economy, as agriculture is one of the leading sectors of Italy. For this reason, both local farmers and agricultural companies are concerned about the future of their country, which is struggling to face the consequences of fires and drought.

Possible Solutions and final conclusions

The report from the United Nations Environment Program, calls on governments to adopt a new “fire-fighting formula”: investing mostly in prevention rather than in intervention.

In fact, at the moment direct responses to fires receive more than half of the related costs, while planning and prevention receive less than 1%. In 2018, California’s total wildfire costs were calculated to be $400 billion annually; firefighting costs, property damage, economic losses and recovery expenditures are included.

Today there is a wide range of AI models that can predict wildfires: Military fire drones that fly over the forests to see hot spots, using heat imaging technology; cameras able to recognize smoke plume; deep learning models developed by US Forest Service, that check the critical live fuel moisture content level of the forests, and many more.

All these examples of high-tech can help, but they only represent a temporary solution to prevent wildfires. It is necessary to stay focused on the main cause, and remember that the fight against climate change requires a daily intervention by all of us, because only together we win.