Last year, record-setting wildfires burnt millions of acres in the United States. The impact of this fire was tremendous. The fire not only killed 31 people and damaged over 10,000 buildings but also created enough smoke to blot out the Sun (with orange air of extremely poor quality) for days after it was extinguished. These effects are lethal ? this smoke can get inside homes and can be hazardous for different groups, especially those with health conditions making them vulnerable to poor air quality.

Unfortunately, these wildfires are extremely widespread, and a driving factor of these wildfires is climate change. Climate change increases global temperatures, dries out forests and kills trees, making them more flammable. It also allows vegetation to burn hotter, rushing the spread of the fire. Park Williams, a bioclimatologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, claims that “as long as stuff is dry enough and there’s a spark, then that stuff will burn'' and that “in areas with abundant and very dry fuels, all you need is a spark.” Climate change has doubled the number of large fires in the western United States between 1984 and 2015.

Of course, it would be unfair to classify climate change as the only cause of these wildfires. 80 percent of US wildfires are caused by people. However, the point is that climate change is worsening pre-existing fires ? even a one-degree (Celsius) increase in annual temperatures can increase the expanse of the burned area by approximately 600 percent in certain areas.

As fires become more intense and difficult, firefighters must discover new ways of extinguishing them with their given resources. In the meantime, communities around the world must adapt to a world with more devastating wildfires and unpredictable air conditions.

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