Warming in the planet transforms the scenery into a hodgepodge, and more extreme weather has produced stronger, hotter, and drier winds, stoking the flames.
Areas that were already deemed safe from the fires will not be immune, too, including the Arctic, which the report says “very likely to experience a significant increase in burning.”
Moreover, the report said that wildfires will likely intensify in the tropical forests in Indonesia and in South America’s southern Amazon area.
The report describes a widening cycle: climate change is bringing increased drought and high temperatures, which are making it more difficult for fires to unfold and spread, and such fires in turn released more climate-changing carbon into the atmosphere while burning through forests and peat bogs.
Some areas, including parts of Africa, are seeing declining forest fires, partly because more land is being spent on farming, said report coauthor Glynis Humphrey of the University of Cape Town.
However, U.N. researchers said many nations continue to waste too much time and money fighting fire and don’t do enough research to prevent it.
Changes in land use can aggravate the fires, including logging that leaves highly flammable debris behind, and forest on purpose set ablaze to clear land for agriculture, according to the report.
