Wildfires raging around the globe highlight need for greater adaptation

Climate change means wildfires the size and intensity of those seen in Australia, California and elsewhere will occur more frequently – but the fallout from these disasters suggests inadequate planning for this new reality. So how should we prepare?

C limate change has been climbing the news agenda for the past 30 years or so. For many who grew up over that period, climate change was always a distant threat; something to worry about, but not a tangible aspect of daily life. 

That attitude, however, is consigned to the past. Climate change is no longer the future; it has arrived and here to stay. The devastating bushfires in Australia, as well as the fires that preceded them in California and elsewhere recently, are the most recent evidence of this – but they have also proved how ill-prepared we are to cope with the impacts of global warming. As the climate activist Greta Thunberg told world leaders in Davos this year, the world, “in case you hadn’t noticed, is on fire”.

The Australian fires have scorched an area of land larger than Belgium and Denmark combined. In New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, more than 1,500 homes have been destroyed, by the flames. California was also ravaged by wildfires last year, which collectively burned around 105,000 hectares – an area roughly the size of Hong Kong. Elsewhere, fires have recently torn through large areas of forest in Siberia and Scandinavia. 

Wildfires have always been part of life on earth. Around 4% of the world’s land surface burns every year. Climate change may not mean more fires in total – some parts of the world will see increases in rainfall as a result, which should reduce the risk of fire. But as the changing climate also increases the length and severity of droughts, regions like Australia can expect fiercer and more frequent wildfires in future – which means that fire-resilience must now become as much of a priority as flood resilience has become elsewhere in the world.

Firefighting

Because humans have lived with wildfires throughout our history, we have developed tried and trusted methods with which to fight them. These include removing strips of vegetation in order to starve fires of their fuel and stop them in their tracks, either using bulldozers or controlled burning. Planes and helicopters can drop water and fire retardant. Unless fires are caught very early, however, these measures won’t put out the flames altogether; instead, they become a way to give at-risk homeowners and communities time to escape. 

In Australia, almost a quarter of a million people have been told to evacuate their homes – a huge effort, and testimony to the country’s bushfire early warning and communication systems that were developed following similarly devastating fires in 2009. 

In the US, meanwhile, early warning systems are also in development. In California, a team at the University of Berkeley is looking at using data from weather satellites to issue wildfire warnings using a mobile phone app. Elsewhere in the state, networks of fire-monitoring infrared cameras are being installed to detect forest fires as soon as possible after they ignite. 

The huge rebuilding efforts that will soon be underway in Australia will also be an opportunity to start building fire-resilient housing – such as this bushfire-proof home on Australia’s south coast that survived the flames virtually unscathed – and even to rethink town planning and service delivery to help prevent the staggering loss of property seen over recent months.

Ultimately, a fire-resilient built environment is a far better option than moving hundreds of thousands of people every few years in the future – but, like the other adaptive measures mentioned above, there are significant costs involved. The Australian government – which has been criticised for what some see as a disjointed and unplanned response to the crisis – has earmarked AUS2 billion ($1.35 billion) for rebuilding and recovery efforts. But it’s now clear that the word ‘unprecedented’ will soon become redundant when applied to natural disasters of this magnitude, and that we must invest today to prepare ourselves for a fiery future that is already upon us.

The ideas presented in this article aim to inspire adaptation action – they are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Global Center on Adaptation.

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