This year, Keeping said, wildfires on several continents have already scorched a land area the size of Alaska — more than half a million square miles — 50 percent more than the average over the past 25 years. Almost all countries in West Africa and the Sahel region of north-central Africa experienced record-breaking wildfires, he said.
But wildfire season has just begun in many parts of the world, so “with this rapid start, in combination with the forecast El Niño … we are looking at what is shaping up to be a particularly severe year,” he said.
He said large fires burning in “normally green areas” of East Asia, including Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, were linked to severe drought, which in turn was linked to human-caused climate change. Scientists know that ecosystems are drying out more rapidly during periods of low rainfall due to warming, he said, adding, “This fire is of particular concern, given how populated the area is.”
Keeping said a strong El Nino that appears later this year “could have a major impact on wildfire risk”, increasing the likelihood of severe hot and dry conditions in Australia, as well as the northwestern US and Canada and the Amazon rainforest.
Even if El Nino leads later this year “to very extreme conditions, it’s not a reason to panic,” Otto said. “It comes and goes. On the contrary, climate change is going to get worse and worse unless we stop burning fossil fuels. So climate change itself is a cause for concern.”
A constructive response is within our reach, he said, “because we know what to do about it. We have the knowledge and technology to move far away from fossil fuel use.”
This story originally appeared on Inside Climate News.
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