First it was Rhodes, then it was Corfu and Canada, and now it’s Maui. Wildfires are rife this summer and, coupled with the intense heatwaves Europe has been experiencing and the practically chilly summer the UK has had, it’s only adding fuel to our ever-growing climate anxiety.
The wildfires in Maui, Hawaii have been particularly catastrophic. At the time of writing, 55 lives have been lost to the blazes that have swept through Maui’s capital of Lahaina. Thousands of local residents have been displaced, and close to 15,000 tourists have fled the island.
With the Earth’s temperatures only getting hotter, can we expect our summers to be filled with wildfires from now on?
“We’re seeing more wildfires, and more deadly wildfires, because of climate change. June was the hottest month on record across the world – and then July beat that record,” Josh Jackman, lead writer at The Eco Experts, tells GLAMOUR.
“This heat dries everything out, removing moisture from everything it touches until a ridiculous number of items are flammable. At that point, you’re living in a tinderbox. Any spark, or even just a glass bottle, can start a raging wildfire. Hot weather on its own can’t usually cause a wildfire – but it can make them almost inevitable.”
While arson is suspected as the main cause for the Rhodes and Corfu wildfires, and lightning strikes are thought to have started some of Canada’s 1,148 fires, the cause of Hawaii’s devastation is yet to be determined, but the islands have been receiving hurricane-level winds which - quite literally - have been fanning the flames.
Wildfires are also common in Australia during the southern hemisphere summer months of December to February. It even dubbed 2019 to 2020 the ‘black summer’ due to the amount of bushfires the country received, which resulted in 34 lives lost and 20million hectares of land burnt. Recent estimates predict that up to 2,400 lives could be lost due to bushfires in Australia in the decade to 2030.
The LA fires are a reminder that we must act now to save our planet.
“It’s not clear yet if the 2023 wildfires are significantly worse on a global scale than in recent years, but the trend over the past decade or so is clear: the quantity and severity of wildfires is increasing,” Jackman explains.
“This is because climate change has created warmer springs and long, hot, dry summers that create the perfect conditions for fires to start and spread over large distances. That’s our new normal. In many areas, the situation is worse than normal this year. Wildfires in Canada have burned 33million acres, smashing the previous annual record of 18million acres. Europe has seen wildfires in Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia, with more than 450,000 acres burned through so far. That’s 42% above the average from the past two decades.”
Countries with high temperatures, low humidity, and high winds are most likely to see wildfires occur, which is why nations such as the US, Canada, Australia, and Indonesia, as well as southern European countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece are the most at risk.
“The UK doesn’t usually have the conditions for wildfires to start, but they will become increasingly common in the coming years – and as well-trained as our firefighting services are, they’re not prepared for wildfires raging across landscapes,” Jackman adds.
In order to prevent wildfires from starting, Jackman says to not drop cigarettes from car windows, not have barbecues in parks or on balconies, not to leave barbecues and campfires unattended, and to not leave glass bottles outside as the sunlight filtering through these bottles can cause a fire in the grass.
According to The Eco Expert’s most recent study, as many as 80% of people are feeling anxious about the climate crisis. The reason why wildfires are so worrying is because they are a visual representation of this climate change, and many feel so powerless about what they can do.
“While it's natural to be concerned, constant worry can be detrimental to one's well-being,” psychologist Barbara Santini says. “I often tell my clients to focus on proactive measures: stay informed, have an emergency plan, and engage in local community efforts for climate resilience. Recognise that anxiety, while natural, is also a call to action. Take small, impactful steps in your life to combat climate change and build a sense of agency.”
Jackman echoes these thoughts, stating that we need to make a change now and cut carbon emissions in order to slow down climate change and lessen the chances of wildfires.
"There's such a strong trend in political parties of seeing young people as images rather than people who have thoughts that might disagree with yours.”
“Climate change absolutely had an effect on the UK’s weather this year – after all, we had the hottest June on record,” he adds. “But climate change doesn’t make every location hotter each year, because it’s not that linear, and because climate isn’t the same as weather – it’s a long-term pattern.
“The jet stream, which is the path of winds in the atmosphere, has been slow over the summer, leading to blocked weather patterns that result in conditions sticking around for longer periods – in this case, wet weather with relatively low temperatures. The probability of a hot, dry summer next year is still high, as it will be every year moving forward – until we tackle climate change properly.”
So, what can you do? While it can feel like we as individuals can’t do too much, what we can do is read more, learn more, protest, lobby against the big corporations, and join environmental groups. Even posting more about it on social media can help to spread awareness. Every little thing counts and the more we make ourselves heard, the more others will listen.
