Climate Change & Wildfires Explained in Less Than Three Minutes

When it comes to climate change, the facts are in. Watch as President Obama's Science Advisor Dr. John Holdren explains--in less than three minutes--how climate change is making America's wildfires more dangerous and why we must act now.

whitehouse.gov - August 5, 2014

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thinkprogress.org - by Jeff Spross - August 6, 2014

Right on the heels of California declaring a state of emergency over wildfires on Saturday, the Obama Administration has released a video linking the blazes to climate change. In it, White House science adviser John Holdren explains how global warming brings higher temperatures and reduces moisture in the soil, thus increasing the odds wildfires will occur as well as their intensity when they do occur.

“While no single wildfire can be said to be caused by climate change, climate change has been making the fire season in the U.S. longer and on average more intense,” Holdren says in the video — further explaining that, on average, annual wildfires in the west have “increased several-fold in the last decade,” and the eight worst years on record for “area burned” by wildfires “have all occurred since 2000.”

“Climate change is also bringing us more dead trees — kindling in effect — killed by a combination of heat stress, water stress and attacks by pests and pathogens that multiply faster in a warmer world.”

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