Hi Reddit! We're Stefan Doerr, Mike Flannigan and Nicola Jones, and we're talking about the increase in the frequency and intensity of wildfires around the world -- Ask Us Anything!

Abstract

My name is Nicola Jones, and I am a freelance science journalist who writes for Yale Environment 360, Nature, New Scientist, Sapiens and more. My scientific background is in chemistry and oceanography, but I have reported and written on stories across the physical sciences, from climate change to quantum physics. I live in Pemberton, BC, where the wildfire smoke was so bad last summer that I had to evacuate my own family to a hotel for a week. In my recent story for Yale Environment 360, “Stark Evidence: A Warmer World Is Sparking More and Bigger Wildfires” [https://e360.yale.edu/features/the-evidence-is-clear-a-warmer-world-means-more-wildfires], scientists Stefan Doerr and Mike Flannigan join me to investigate the factors behind the increasing intensity and frequency of wildfires around the world. My name is Mike Flannigan and I am the director of the Canadian Partnership for Wildland Fire Science and a Professor of Wildland Fire at the University of Alberta. My research interests include wildland fire and weather/climate interactions including the potential impact of climatic change, lightning-ignited forest fires and landscape fire modelling. In Canada, we are already seeing the impact of climate change with longer fire seasons and more area burned. My name is Stefan H. Doerr, and I’m a Professor of Physical Geography and leader of the Environmental Dynamics Research Group at Swansea University in the United Kingdom. My research centers on wildfire impacts, including fire effects on landscape carbon dynamics, on soils and on water quality, as well as global fire patterns, trends and risk. The wildfire season is getting longer—it has increased by 19% from 1978 to 2013. The burned area in the U.S. West has gone from 250,000 acres in 1985 to 1.2 million acres in 2015. Siberia is seeing its worst fires in 10,000 years. In short, there’s an increased risk for fire on every continent, and things are only slated to get worse. Many of the causes of these fires are anthropogenic—but climate change isn’t the only factor. Other human effects, including forest management policy, have also played a role. Why are wildfires increasing, what should we expect wildfires to look like in the future, and what can we do to help prevent them? We will be answering your questions at 1 pm EST -- Ask Us Anything!