Fossil Fuel-Driven Climate Change is Worsening Wildfire Seasons

Wildfire seasons are getting worse, and researchers point to fossil fuel-driven climate change as a major reason why. Hot, dry weather and heat waves have dried out forests, priming them to burn. In the U.S., the area burned this year is already far above the 10-year average, and fires in North American forests are burning larger, more severe, and faster than they did decades ago, over longer seasons and in places that used to be too wet or too cool to burn easily.

These aren't just wilderness problems. Last year's Los Angeles wildfires killed at least 30 people and caused an estimated $140 billion in losses, and property insurance costs jumped sharply or became harder to get at all in affected areas. Scientists using "attribution science" (methods that isolate how much of a trend comes from climate change specifically) have traced a significant share of this worsening fire risk to emissions from major fossil fuel and cement companies. One study found their emissions account for nearly 40 percent of the burned forest area in western North America since the mid-1980s, and have also reduced snowpack and stream flow across the western U.S., leaving landscapes drier for longer each year.

For homeowners, especially those in fire-prone regions of the western U.S., this trend helps explain why wildfire risk, and the cost of insuring against it, has been climbing. It's worth checking whether your own homeowners insurance has changed in cost or availability, and whether your state or region has updated wildfire risk maps or building requirements as conditions continue to shift.