The “Pyrocene” is upon us. At least, that's the theory first presented by fire historian Stephen Pyne in a 2015 article.
United States Forest Service biologist Gavin Jones described the Pyrocene in a 2023 interview with Explorer Journal as the current era in which humans experienced greater fire activity than ever before. The main factor – human activity.
Wildfires currently raging through the Los Angeles suburbs of California and beyond have claimed at least 11 lives and destroyed more than 30,000 acres of land and more than 10,000 buildings. They are the most destructive wildfires in state history.
As wildfires increase every year around the world, climate scientists are worried that climate change is making them worse.
Wildfires raging and seemingly unstoppable in many areas of Los Angeles in California, US, which started on Tuesday, killed at least ten people and destroyed 10,000 houses and buildings. About 30,000 hectares (12,000 acres) of land have been burned, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).
All hands are on the deck #PalisadesFire in Southern California. California is so thankful for the brave firefighters and first responders who fight wildfires.
We will continue to mobilize resources and support local communities as they respond to this severe weather. pic.twitter.com/JZrYy85e4z
— Governor Newsom (@CAgovernor) January 8, 2025
California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a video he sent to X on Wednesday that there is no longer a fire “season” in California. “A year round in the state of California.”
Pyne, a senior professor at Arizona State University's School of Life Sciences, agrees. He told Al Jazeera that now “we have to live with the age of fire, the experience of fire equivalent to an ice age”.
Has climate change contributed to California's wildfires?
It is very possible, according to many experts.
The planet is changing at record levels, scientists warn. The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) confirmed on Friday that 2024 was the first full year in which global temperatures exceeded pre-industrial levels by 1.5 degrees Celsius.
C3S said the climate crisis is pushing the world to temperatures never seen by modern humans.
Climate change has contributed to an increase in the frequency, length of season and area burned by wildfires, according to a report by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
As a result of all this, says Pyne, global warming is “adding strength to the cycle, increasing the wet and dry periods, increasing the fire season, driving all the fires forward.” [already powerful] factors influencing the California firescape”.
How does climate change directly fuel wildfires?
The exact causes of the California fire, which started on Tuesday in the Palisades area of Los Angeles, are unknown and are being investigated.
“But they're human,” Pyne said. “It is possible that they are directly related to people [malice, carelessness] or indirectly [say, through faulty power lines]. At the moment the origin is not clear.”
However, experts say that a combination of environmental factors may have created the perfect conditions for the unscheduled fires to spread as quickly as they did.
For one thing, southern California hasn't seen much rain in months.
The latest US Drought Monitor map shows that as of January 7, only 39.1 percent of California is drought-free. One region is described as “abnormally dry” and other areas are experiencing “moderate to abnormal” drought.
About this time last year — as of January 2, 2024 — 96.7 percent of California was classified as drought-free. In addition, only 3.4 percent of the state is abnormally dry and no parts are experiencing severe drought.
Very dry conditions make plants very dry and hot.
In addition to this, Los Angeles has a number of other flammable materials in its infrastructure, such as low-hanging power lines and wooden telephone poles.
Santa Ana's hot winds have also moved in from the center of the state and toward the coast, further wiping out vegetation, experts said. If the vegetation is too dry and the conditions are too flammable, any spark can start a fire, be it a burning cigarette butt, a car or an electrical wire.
Are some natural disasters related to climate change?
Yes. A changing climate coupled with poor urban planning and management has exacerbated natural disasters around the world, including hurricanes, typhoons and floods.
Scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) believe that if the planet's temperatures exceed the pre-industrial average by 2C, the speed of hurricane winds could increase by 10 percent.
They also say climate change could slow down — rather than speed up — the movement of hurricanes. This means that storms can dump more water on the areas they pass through.
Warm oceans help storms intensify faster, Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, told Al Jazeera in April 2023.
In October last year, the World Weather Attribution (WWA) said climate change caused by fossil fuel use has increased seasonal rainfall in the Niger and Lake Chad regions by between 5 percent and 20 percent by 2024, causing more floods.
Asian countries have also experienced severe flooding in recent years. In April 2024, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) published a report that found that Asia is warming faster than the global average.
WMO chief Celeste Saulo said in a statement that “many countries in the region have experienced their hottest year on record in 2023, as well as a range of extreme conditions, from droughts and heat waves to floods and storms”. He added that “the frequency and intensity of such events” is being increased by climate change.
Will these incidents get worse if climate change is not addressed?
Wildfires are expected to spread over time due to climate change and land use change, according to a 2022 report by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and its partner, the environmental communication agency, GRID-Arendal.
The report showed that dangerous fires worldwide will increase by 14 percent by 2030, 30 percent by the end of 2050 and 50 percent by the end of this century.
In addition, wildfires damage the environment in other ways. Regarding the California fires, “if (and if) the winter rains finally arrive, it could lead to landslides and debris flows”, said Pyne, suggesting that the cleanup after the fire “will be messy, long and expensive”.
Man-made conditions have made it difficult to deal with the outbreak of natural disasters.
Pyne said “today's homes are full of plastics, synthetics and electronics that can be dangerous” when they catch fire.
How do wildfires affect wildlife?
Wildfires burn acres of land quickly and can have unique effects on wildfire habitats.
The effects depend on the species of wildlife and their habitat needs, as well as the intensity and frequency of wildfires, according to an article published by North Carolina (NC) State University.
Some species can quickly escape as the fire quickly burns acres of land. “Some animals, especially those that don't move or are too slow to escape, are at great risk from the smoke and heat of wildfires,” he explained.
Does that affect the environment in general?
It could be. As wildfires alter vegetation by thinning it out, some wildlife can lose their habitat, and the resulting movement of wildlife can throw off the balance of an area's ecosystem.
Take snakes for example. About 33 species of snakes are found in California.
Michael Starkey, a conservationist whose work focuses on snake conservation, told Al Jazeera that rising temperatures and drier conditions are making some regions less suitable for other snake species.
Starkey said that while some snakes may move, other species may become extinct. This is a problem because snakes eat rodents that destroy crops that are eaten by humans. This chain reaction can affect all food systems.
California is also home to 700 species of vertebrates, which are put simply, vertebrates and bony animals. This makes the country the most biodiverse in the US, according to an article published by the US Department of Agriculture in March 2024.
Record-breaking wildfires engulfed California in 2020 and 2021, burning more than 4.2 million hectares of land.
“Unfortunately, forest fires killed or displaced nearly three billion animals. It made me wonder what is happening to our wildlife,” US ecologist Jones was quoted as saying in an article by the United States Department of Agriculture.
Pacific Southwest Research Station scientist John Keane said spotted owls are a species of concern, according to the article. “Wildfire disasters can destroy old and dense forest stands that spotted owls rely on for nesting, roosting and foraging.”
