Forest fires have doubled in the last 20 years
According to a study in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, forest fires have doubled in the last twenty years, with the most extreme years of such events recorded being from 2017 onwards. For the research, experts used satellite data from 2003 to 2023 to calculate the cumulative intensity of a fire event, rather than a single time and location.
Based on this, they found that energy extreme fires have more than doubled in frequency and size over this time period. They also identified that North America and Australia were most affected by the extremes, and that the increase in extremes was mainly associated with more intense fires in temperate coniferous and taiga forests, including in North America and Russia.
The researchers suggest that this increase may be related to increased drought in forests in recent years due to climate change.
Source: APE-MPA
