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Photograph of a wildfire on a hillside burning at night with smoke and nearby houses.

Wildfires

Wildfires are a growing global threat, fueled by the complex interplay of climate change, human activity, and natural factors. Rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and shifting weather patterns linked to climate change are intensifying the frequency, severity, and unpredictability of wildfires. Wildfires can devastate ecosystems, displace communities, and release vast amounts of carbon dioxide, further exacerbating climate change. As scientists work to unravel the dynamics of wildfire behavior, challenges remain in predicting fire patterns, mitigating risks, and understanding their long-term impacts on biodiversity and human health. Bridging the gap between scientific understanding and practical solutions will be crucial in adapting to this escalating crisis and building resilience against its far-reaching consequences.

Recent Stories

In The Media

  • Banks see a dire climate future - and ways to profit
    Politico | March 31, 2025

    Each fraction of warming leads to an uptick in the severity and frequency of dangerous heat waves, storms, wildfires and other disasters. … While major financial institutions don’t want to be seen as bucking Trump’s fossil-fueled agenda, they have to accurately assess climate risks, take stock of opportunities and make “rational business decision[s],” said Gautam Jain, a former investment banker who is now a senior research scholar at Columbia … That’s it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.

  • These are the impacts some scientists fear most from EPA deregulation
    ABC News | March 26, 2025

    Deregulation would greatly reduce the country's momentum in transitioning away from fossil fuels as well, Michael Gerrard, a professor of environmental law at Columbia Law School, told ABC News. "This moves us even further behind, and it inevitably will mean that the extreme weather events we've experienced, the floods and the heat waves and the wildfires and so forth, will get worse," he said.

  • GOP leaders want to put conditions on California wildfire aid. Is there precedent for that?
    Politifact | January 26, 2025

    Jeff Schlegelmilch, director of Columbia University’s National Center for Disaster Preparedness, said the federal government can put nonpartisan pressure on states relating to disaster funding. For example, presidents can increase federal cost shares after disasters if they determine that states made sufficient efforts to prevent disaster losses, he said. chlegelmilch said a partisan battle between Trump and Newsom is “not healthy,” but said “it is a good idea to revisit the relationship between states and federal aid for disasters.” That should be done “objectively in a very nonpartisan way,” he said.

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