En-en adult card 35 forest fires

Card #35: Forest Fires

Causes		Consequences
Droughts Heat Waves		No direct consequences.

Forest fires start more easily during droughts and heat waves.

Correction

Causes

• Droughts
• Heat Waves

Consequences

No direct consequences.

Other possible links

Other consequences

• Deforestation Deforestation is partly done by burning the forest, which can then degenerate into uncontrolled fire. This is what happened in the summer of 2019 in the Amazon and Australia.
• Aerosols Smoke from wildfires has been shown to carry toxic particles.
• Terrestrial biodiversity This is a more minor link, except for specific biodiversity-rich areas.
• Decline of agricultural yields Generally forests burn better than wheat fields.
• Human health 630 people died in Californian wildfires in autumn 2018.

To go further

Mega-Fire

A Mega-fire is an exceptionally large fire, causing large local fires that devastate expansive areas, without this appellation corresponding to a very precise scientific definition. We usually speak of a mega-fire when the affected area is at least 1,000 to 10,000 hectares. Mega-fires account for only 3% of all fires, yet represent 50% of global losses. 96% of the last 500 mega-fires in the last 10 years took place during a period of abnormally high heat and/or drought.

Examples of events

In 2018, in California, 1,975,086 acres (799,200 hectares, about the size of Corsica) were burned, for a total of 8,000 fires and 100 casualties, but the burned area doubled in 2020 to reach 1,635,300 hectares (larger than Ile-De-France: the greater Paris area).

In the 2019-2020 season, Australia saw a total area of 17 million hectares go up in smoke. This surface area represents a third of France.

Forest fires on Mount Kilimanjaro on the rise.

Forest fires on the rise in Portugal and Greece

Article(s)

Fire the Earth, on the mega-fires (French)