Global Wildfire Threat

Climate change and invasive species are driving severe wildfire risks across global ecosystems.

Wildfire risks are increasing across ecosystems, driven by climate change, changing fuel conditions and land-management challenges. A study in Ecuador’s southern Andes projects growing fire hazards in the high-elevation páramo and surrounding vegetation as warmer, drier conditions threaten water-regulating habitats and biodiversity. In Central Australia, environmental advocates are urging federal action on buffel grass, an invasive pasture species that creates heavy, highly flammable fuel loads; pastoralists, however, say the grass supports cattle production. In the United States, researchers warn that hotter, faster-moving fires are causing greater damage in forests historically adapted to fire, leaving some areas less able to recover. Scientists stress that fire is ecologically necessary, while a lack of prescribed burning can leave landscapes more vulnerable to severe blazes.

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