Wildfires burned 1.5 million square miles of land around the world from March 2023 through February 2024, spewing 8.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
And climate change helped fuel the destruction, scientists say.
Blazes in Canada, which saw its worst fire season on record, burned up nearly 58,000 square miles — 40 percent more land than would have burned in a world without global warming. And the dry, windy weather that made it possible was at least three times more likely to occur because of climate change.
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In Greece, where Europe’s largest wildfire on record erupted last year, the burned area was 18 percent higher because of climate change. The fire weather there was at least twice as likely to occur.
