Gloria Dickie

LONDON, (Reuters) – Extreme wildfires have ravaged Indonesia’s peatlands and California’s forests. Now, large swathes in Argentine wetland are being wiped out by them. This is a sign of a fiery future that must be prevented.

Climate change is leading to droughts, and farmers are clearing forest areas. The number of wildfires will increase by 30% over the next 28 year. They are also scorching places that weren’t prone to fire in the past like the Arctic tundra or the Amazon (NASDAQ) rainforest.

Andrew Sullivan (Australian government bushfire scientist), was an editor of the UN Environment Programme’s Wednesday report. He is also a member of GRID-Arendal, an environmental communication group.

At the same time, the slow disappearance of cool, damp nights that once helped to temper fires also means they are getting harder to extinguish, according to a second study https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04325-1 published last week in the journal Nature.

Researchers found that night temperatures have increased faster than the day over the past four decades. This led to a 36% rise in after-dark hours which were dry and warm enough to sustain fire.

Jennifer Balch is the lead author of Nature’s study and the director of University of Colorado Boulder’s Earth Lab. She stated, “This mechanism allows fires get bigger and more severe.”

“Exhausted firefighters don’t get relief,” which means they can’t regroup and revise strategies to tackle a blaze.

There are many consequences to extreme fires, including loss of property and destruction as well as expensive firefighting operations. According to the UNEP, wildfire costs the United States an estimated $347 billion per year.

California was ravaged by fire, and the state spent $3.1 billion to suppress it in 2020-21.

Fires that raged in Argentina’s Corrientes Province since December have caused massive destruction, including the death of Ibera National Park wildlife and the charring of pasturelands and livestock. They also decimated crops such as yerba maté, fruit and rice. According to The Argentine Rural Society (ARS), losses already exceed 25 billion Argentine dollars ($234 millions).

UNEP recommends that governments rethink their wildfire spending. They should allocate 45% to prevention and preparedness and 34% towards firefighting response.

“In many regions of the world, most resources go toward response — they focus on the short-term,” said Paulo Fernandes, a contributing author of the UNEP report and fire scientist at Universidade of Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro in Portugal.