World Politics News   Articles for World Politics Course

Wildfires are burning in large parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Many are aware of the wildfires in the western parts of the US including Oregon, Idaho, and California. National Public Radio conducted an interview between Scott Simon and Lauren Sommer which details the extent of the damage so far in the US:

“SIMON: We talk about fires in the West now almost routinely. Last year was record-breaking. Is this looking to be the same kind of season?

“SOMMER: Yeah. It’s been a very busy fire season already because many of the fires have been so fast-moving. You know, in southern Oregon, the biggest wildfire in the country, the Bootleg Fire, has burned more than 400,000 acres. In California, the Dixie Fire is burning not far from where the Camp Fire burned in 2018, which destroyed thousands of homes. So residents are on alert yet again.

“Compared to last year at this time, wildfires have burned three times more acreage already in the state. And the worst of fire season hasn’t hit yet, which is typically August, September, October.”

The western fires are so intense that the smoke from them are affecting the air quality on the US East Coast.

But the US is not the only country to be so seriously affected. There are large wildfires burning in Siberia, Canada, Sardinia, Sicily, Lebanon, Greece. and Turkey.

Most analysts agree that global warming is largely responsible for the intensity of these fires. CNN reports:

“‘The fire season is getting longer, the fires are getting larger, they’re burning more intensely than ever before,’ said Thomas Smith, an assistant professor in Environmental Geography at the London School of Economics.

“Many factors, like poor land management, play a role in wildfires, but climate change is making them more frequent and intense. Most of Europe, the Western US, southwest Canada and some regions of South America experienced drier-than-average conditions in June, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, making tinderboxes of forests.

“The wildfires in Yakutia have consumed more than 6.5 million acres since the beginning of the year,​ according to figures published by the country’s Aerial Forest Protection Service. That’s nearly 5 million football fields.”