<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/jan/13/mapped-how-the-world-is-losing-its-forests-to-wildfires>
"The world is losing forests to fire at an unsustainable rate, experts have
warned.
Wildfires have always been part of nature’s cycle, but in recent decades their
scale, frequency and intensity in carbon-rich forests have surged.
Research from the World Resources Institute (WRI) shows that fires now destroy
more than twice as much tree cover as they did two decades ago.
In 2024 alone, 135,000km² of forest burned – the most extreme wildfire year on
record.
Yet fires in other landscapes have not risen in the same way, according to
research from the University of Tasmania. While the total area burned globally
has fallen for decades as farms have expanded across Africa and slowed the
spread of blazes – forests have become a new hotspot.
The rise in forest fires is unmistakable. Four of the five worst years on
record have occurred since 2020.
Research from the WRI shows that 2024 was the first time that major fires raged
across tropical, hot and humid forests such as the Amazon, and boreal forests,
such as those spanning Canada’s vast coniferous regions."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
