Wildfire disasters are increasing but burning less land globally. Here's why

"Worldwide, an estimated 440 million people were exposed to a wildfire encroaching on their home at some point between 2002 and 2021, new research shows. That's roughly equivalent to the entire population of the European Union, and the number has been steadily rising-up 40% over those two decades. With intense, destructive fires often in the news, it can seem like more land is burning. And in parts of the world, including western North America, it is."

"Globally, however, our team of fire researchers also found that the total area burned actually declined by 26% over those two decades. How is that possible? We found the driving reasons for those changes in Africa, which has the vast majority of all land burned, but the total burned area there has been falling. Agricultural activities in Africa are increasingly fragmenting wildland areas that are prone to burning."

An estimated 440 million people worldwide were exposed to wildfires encroaching on homes between 2002 and 2021, a roughly 40% increase. Global total burned area declined by about 26% over the same period. The decline is driven largely by reductions in Africa, where agricultural expansion fragments wildlands and interrupts fire spread while placing more people near fire-prone edges. Intense wildfires have increased in regions such as western North America, raising threats to lives, infrastructure and economies as development reaches fire-prone areas. Analysis of two decades of activity used climate and wildfire science and geospatial modeling.

Read at Fast Company