The Fossil Fuels Behind Forest Fires

The communities, cultures, and ecosystems of the western United States and southwestern Canada evolved alongside wildfire for thousands of years. Over the last several decades, however, climate change has altered the character of western wildfires.

There are many ways to measure the growing toll these extreme wildfires are taking across the region: human deaths, homes reduced to ash, towns erased, acres scorched, days of smoke-choked air, and dollars spent preparing for fires, putting them out, and rebuilding in their wake.