there is less fire on earth than twenty years ago. that is true. it is not the whole story. africa: burned area down by roughly a quarter worldwide since the early 2000s, almost all of it savanna that became farmland and fenceline. fewer fires, more fields. western north america: forest area burned has more than doubled since the mid-1980s. warmer, drier, longer seasons. boreal canada and siberia: record carbon from fire in 2021 and 2023. the forest is burning hotter and further north. the amazon and cerrado: fires here are not weather. they are lit, to clear land for cattle and soy. the forest is here; the beef is elsewhere.
method Andela et al. 2017 (global burned area trend); Abatzoglou & Williams 2016; Copernicus CAMS; INPE.
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