Almost half of the most destructive wildfires occurred in the last decade – scientists
Kyiv • UNN
A new study has found that almost half of the deadliest and costliest wildfires in the past 44 years have occurred in just the last decade. The cause is a combination of climate change, expanding human settlements, and improper land use.
Wildfires worldwide are becoming more frequent, more intense, and more costly for society. A new study published in the journal Science showed that almost half of the deadliest and most expensive fires in the last 44 years occurred in just the last decade. This is reported by Euronews, writes UNN.
Details
The study's authors analyzed global disaster databases from 1980 to 2023. They identified the largest events by number of deaths (10 or more deaths) or by the scale of economic losses that were among the top 200 relative to the country's GDP. The result is unambiguous: the trend is upward, and the cause is a combination of climate change, the expansion of human settlements in vulnerable regions, and improper land use.
Mediterranean biomes proved to be particularly dangerous – 6.7 times more large-scale fires were recorded there than could be expected relative to the population.
In Europe, the number of "billion-dollar events" has significantly increased, particularly in Spain and Portugal, while North America has seen the largest growth in absolute damages.
This summer, Europe faced record levels of destruction from fires. Scientists emphasize that such disasters are increasingly occurring at the interface of wealthy urbanized areas, which increases both economic losses and risks to human lives.
Mitigation must also include strategies to reduce deaths by improving evacuation efficiency, especially for socially vulnerable populations who are most likely to die in wildfires, as well as designing fire-resistant structures and protected spaces where people can "shelter in place"
The EU has already promised to strengthen firefighting forces and rapidly deploy teams to the most vulnerable regions. However, scientists and activists emphasize that governments are still lagging behind with prevention. Scientists call for proactive measures – from planned controlled burning to supporting affected communities.