Apocalyptic images of fire and brimstone may well be the future of our planet, according to a new scientific study which found that the recent uptick in forest fires is due in large part to human-caused climate change.

The research team, from the University of Idaho and Columbia University, said that scientists have known for some time that global warming is making wildfires longer and more powerful as they eat up wide swathes of forestland across the western United States. But the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on Monday, sought to determine just how much of that increased fire activity can be attributed to anthropogenic warming—and how much worse will it get.

Warmer, drier air saps the moisture from trees and plants, turning them into prime kindling. And there is plentiful research to suggest that, thanks to fossil fuel emissions, the western United States in recent years has been sacked with increasing droughts and hotter temperatures.

The study found that since the 1970s, global warming is responsible for half the documented increase in drier, fire-prone “fuel,” which in turn has doubled the areas susceptible for forest fires and lengthened the annual fire season. 

Last year was a record year for wildfires in the U.S. with over 10 million acres burned. And in the first quarter of this year, wildfires already burned through 1.3 million acres of forest, which was reportedly double the average for that time.

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, “9 of the worst 10 years for acres burned have occurred since 2000.”

“Although numerous factors aided the recent rise in fire activity, observed warming and drying have significantly increased fire-season fuel aridity, fostering a more favorable fire environment across forested systems,” the study states. “We demonstrate that human-caused climate change caused over half of the documented increases in fuel aridity since the 1970s and doubled the cumulative forest fire area since 1984.”

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