Human emissions made France and Spain wildfires twice as likely, study finds

📡 Dagens Nyheter (Sweden) · 1 min read ·
Part of composite article Europe’s wildfires are getting worse. This year is on pace to break last year’s record—the most destructive fire season on the continent ever recorded. The main culprit? A combination of extreme heat, prolonged drought, and strong winds. These conditions, scientists say, are being amplified by climate change, turning normal summer fires into megafires that are harder to contain and faster to spread. In Spain and France, the blazes have already forced mass evacuations and destroyed thousands of hectares of land. The message from experts is clear: what once was a seasonal threat is now a year-round danger. View full article →
Human greenhouse gas emissions made the extreme weather driving this summer’s devastating wildfires in France and Spain at least twice as likely in France, and 20 times more likely in Spain, according to a new rapid analysis. “What we are seeing in France and Spain is not just bad luck. It is a clear sign of the escalating effects of human-caused warming,” said Clair Barnes, one of the researchers behind the report. The study focused on the weather conditions that fuel fire risk, such as heat and dryness. It found that these conditions have become significantly more probable due to climate change. The findings point to a direct link between fossil fuel emissions and the intensity of this year’s fire season in Western Europe. While the analysis does not claim that climate change caused the fires themselves, it shows that it made the conditions for them far more likely. Barnes and her colleagues stress that without rapid cuts to emissions, such fire-prone weather will continue to become more common.