• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Sorry, Climate Change Hysterics. There Are Fewer Wildfires Today Than in the 1930s

by Chris Morrison
20 August 2022 6:58 PM

Last Wednesday, Matt McGrath reported on the BBC that the amount of tree cover being burned has nearly doubled over the past 20 years. Of the 9.3 million hectares burnt globally, Russia was alleged to account for more than a half. Of course, climate change was said to be a “key factor” in the increase. There is no factual basis for this claim, needless to say. Take the word of Greenpeace, which recently reported Russian government statistics that showed “nine out of ten wildfires in the country were caused by humans”.

McGrath, of course, was complying with the Corporation’s strictly-enforced agenda that says that almost every natural disaster and episode of extreme weather should be blamed on humans burning fossil fuel. The ultimate political agenda is the command-and-control Net Zero fantasy. Climate change was said to be the key factor by McGrath because it leads to higher temperatures and drier conditions. Except, it might be added, when global temperatures pause, as they have throughout most of the 21st century, and droughts turn into floods, etc., etc.

The data on tree loss comes from Global Forest Watch (GFW), which uses information taken from orbiting satellites. Last year was said to be the second worst year on record. “It’s roughly twice what it was just 20 years ago. It is kind of astonishing just how much fire activity has increased over such a short amount of time,” said James MacCarthy, an analyst with GFW.

The data used by GFW is taken from a number of Landstat satellites and processed by the Global Land Analysis and Discovery (GLAD) laboratory at the University of Maryland. But the GLAD data comes with a number of important warnings and caveats. The first satellites used in the 20-year record provided less data and there are gaps in the record. There was improved performance from 2012, but GLAD warned that “such changes in the mapping method can result in year-to-year inconsistencies”. Additionally, “models have been iterated to improve performance in the 2012-forward period”. Care must be taken when comparing change across any interval, it cautioned.

Above is the Russian graph on tree cover fire loss taken from GFW. It can be seen that the higher annual amounts started around the same time that improved satellite data came on stream. The past results going back to 2001 were flat for a decade, then different reporting and modelling came in, and they have been flat ever since, but at a higher level. Climate change is not the most obvious and rational reason to explain this ‘trend’.

Far from global fire losses being “staggering” over the last 20 years, as faithfully reported by McGrath and the BBC, it’s possible they have changed little in that period. That was the opinion of the Royal Society in October 2020 when it noted that there had been no overall increase in total area burnt by fire across the globe. In 2016, two academics from Swansea University, Professor of Wildfire Stefan Doerr and Dr Christina Santin, published a ground-breaking paper in which they disclosed that the global area burned “appears to have declined over past decades”. In fact, they noted, there was “increasing evidence that there is less fire in the global landscape than centuries ago”.

The academics went on to note that fire has been an important factor in the dynamics of the Earth’s climate and in the development of biomass since its widespread occurrence began 400-350 million years ago. They suggest fire suppression and alarm has arisen from focussing exclusively on first in the West by advocacy groups in the USA, Australia and Mediterranean Europe. They conclude that the attempt to bring all fire under control is “long proven to be impractical, unsustainable and ecologically detrimental in fire-prone reasons”.

The biblical catastrophising of fire is rampant throughout mainstream media. Most fires are caused by humans, whether accidentally or on purpose. For instance, in 2011 a research project funded by the Forestry Commission discovered that over 90% of South Wales grassland fires were recorded within 100 metres of a road or public right of way. The figure climbed to 99% if you extended the distance to 500m. But climate change is the only game in town these days. It seems nothing must get in the way of that narrative.

The graph above shows that U.S. wildfires were much worse in the past. Dramatic improvements have been recorded since the 1930s. Last year the National Interagency Fire Center suddenly removed all the collations prior to 1983, stating that “there is no official data prior to 1983 posted on this site”. Of course, 1983 is a convenient low point, meaning that the media can now faithfully report that wildfires have been increasing in the U.S.

The American meteorologist and climate writer Anthony Watts is less than impressed: “This wholesale erasure of important public data stinks, but in today’s narrative control culture that wants to rid us of anything that might be inconvenient or doesn’t fit the ‘woke’ narrative, it isn’t surprising.”

Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.

Postscript: One of the claims in this article – that there are fewer forest fires today in the U.S. than there were in the first part of the 20th Century – has been challenged by Dave Vetter, a “Sustainability Senior Contributor” to Forbes. Chris has replied to his criticisms here.

Tags: BBCJames MacCarthyMatt McGrathTree CoverWildfires

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

Is it Time For the Pro-Lockdown Fanatics to Fall to their Knees and Beg For Forgiveness?

Next Post

News Round-Up

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

8 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

DONATE

PODCAST

In Episode 35 of the Sceptic: Andrew Doyle on Labour’s Grooming Gang Shame, Andrew Orlowski on the India-UK Trade Deal and Canada’s Ignored Covid Vaccine Injuries

by Richard Eldred
9 May 2025
5

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

Is Britain on the Brink of Civil War?

12 May 2025
by Joe Baron

Disney Re-Releases Snow White – and it Bombs Even Worse Than the First Time

12 May 2025
by Will Jones

News Round-Up

13 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

The Met Office is Unable to Name the Sites Providing ‘Estimated’ Temperature Data For its 103 Non-Existent Stations

12 May 2025
by Chris Morrison

A Closer Look at ARIA: Britain’s Secretive £800 Million Sun-Dimming Quango

13 May 2025
by Tilak Doshi

BBC Presenter Gary Lineker Posts Anti-Israel Video Featuring Rat Emoji – a Known Antisemitic Slur

39

Did Keir Starmer Just Say He Will ‘Take Back Control’?

26

A Closer Look at ARIA: Britain’s Secretive £800 Million Sun-Dimming Quango

26

Female Rugby Player Left With Major Injury After Horror Tackle From Transgender Opponent Asks: “How Was This Allowed to Happen?”

15

News Round-Up

13

It’s Not ‘CSE’. It’s Child Rape

13 May 2025
by Joanna Gray

The NHS No Longer Recognises the Reality of Biological Sex

13 May 2025
by Caroline Ffiske

A Closer Look at ARIA: Britain’s Secretive £800 Million Sun-Dimming Quango

13 May 2025
by Tilak Doshi

Did Keir Starmer Just Say He Will ‘Take Back Control’?

13 May 2025
by James Alexander

Why Are Popes so Soft on Migration?

12 May 2025
by Dr Roger Watson

POSTS BY DATE

August 2022
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Jul   Sep »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment