The Annual Meltdown Over Wildfires 

It’s that time of year again: the sun is shining, the summer holidays have begun, and the media are whipping themselves into a frenzy over the idea that the planet is engulfed in hellfire.  

Reuters has warned that Europe is being “cooked alive.” Firefighters in Spain are battling comically evil-sounding “fire whirls.” The Guardian says we are facing a “‘molotov cocktail’ of climatic conditions.” France24 published a report about how continued use of fossil fuels will lead to more devastating wildfires, such as those currently causing a “disaster on an unprecedented scale” in Aude, southern France. 

According to professor of climatology and environmental sciences Jean-Pascal van Yperselem, who was interviewed by France24, this is all our fault. The fire in Aude, he believes, is the result of human-caused climate change and is proof that “climate change is intensifying the conditions that make those very big fires and forest fires more likely.” For this, “we can only blame ourselves.” 

Only, this isn’t unprecedented at all. As climate researcher Linnea Lueken points out, the fire in Aude this year has seen over 16,000 hectares burned. This is a substantial figure, yes, but it is still only the worst fire since 1949, which burned more than 50,000 hectares. Given we’ve had 76 years’ worth of climate change since then, we might expect to see some more damaging wildfires in that time. 

France in general, however, has not experienced an increase in either the number of fires or the amount of land lost. Nor are wildfires historically uncommon in the Mediterranean region, where ecosystems can often benefit from annual blazes. In fact, fires have not become any more frequent in Europe as a whole either, and there may be evidence to suggest that they’re actually on the decline. 

Yet you wouldn’t sense that from reading the breathless reporting each year. Outbreaks of fires in the hot, dry climates of Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey, and the Balkans are inevitably treated as a result of man-made climate change. While average temperatures in many parts of the world are indeed gradually rising, whether or not—and the extent to which—this is caused by human activity remains disputed (and, as Alex Epstein points out, rising temperatures are not necessarily a bad thing, given that far more people die annually from the cold than the heat). 

To some degree, it’s true that many wildfires are caused by humans. Not necessarily because we’re going on holidays abroad or heating our homes, but because of arson. Many of the fires in Spain this year, for example, are suspected to be the result of deliberate fire-starting. As is a three-day blaze on Mount Vesuvius in Italy. In southern France, “dozens” of fires were started by one lone pyromaniac last month. In other cases, such as on the Greek island of Chios, fires are the consequence of carelessness, with one woman being allegedly responsible for destroying over 40,000 hectares of land after she dropped a lit cigarette. 

There is a more systematic negligence to blame, too. EU funding meant to help prepare and fortify areas vulnerable to wildfires is often misallocated. A recent report demonstrated just how bad this mismanagement is, with countries sometimes using outdated and inaccurate maps to direct resources and assess high-risk zones. Portuguese authorities, for example, had highlighted one area as a priority for funding that contained a zone now completely underwater due to a new dam. Inadequate forest management, failed early warning systems, and chaotic evacuations also shoulder a great deal of the blame for the damage, injuries, and deaths.  

To the eco-zealots, it doesn’t matter that Europe’s wildfire problem is fuelled in large part by negligence, poor planning, and arson. Nor does it matter that there has been no meaningful increase in wildfires in Europe—or even that natural disasters are becoming less prevalent across the world. Extreme weather events aren’t even becoming more deadly, despite what we’re often told. Every death at the hands of a wildfire, hurricane, or tsunami is tragic. But the fact of the matter is that natural-disaster-related deaths have decreased by a whopping 97% since the 1920s, despite the global population quadrupling in that time. 

For the true believers in a climate apocalypse, “burning fossil fuels” and “holiday travel” is “a kind of arson in itself.” The most important thing is not that we take realistic measures to prevent and protect against wildfires (which are largely inevitable in many parts of Europe during the summer months), but that humankind self-flagellates over its use of supposedly dirty, evil fossil fuels to power civilisation. 

In many ways, the annual wildfire panic feels less like it’s about actual climate science, and more like a quasi-religious mania. Each summer’s heatwave or blaze is presented as fresh proof of humanity’s sinfulness. Like prophets of doom, they see natural disasters as divine punishments from above. The media join them in their hysterics, wailing about how the “Earth is on fire” and suffering a “heat apocalypse”, because, according to UN secretary António Guterres, “humanity has opened the gates to Hell.” 

No amount of Net Zero targets, lab-grown meat, or solar farms will ever be enough to appease these people or their climate gods. Their creed demands perpetual atonement. This is why many of the proposed ‘solutions’ to apparently world-ending climate change seem utterly ridiculous. Like banning people from entering forests in Nova Scotia. Or the UK Environment Agency telling Brits to delete old emails to save the country from drought. Or academics at an American university suggesting that we should unleash a plague of ticks to make people allergic to red meat. In the climate cult, ever-more bizarre acts of self-denial are demanded to prove one’s virtue before the altar of Net Zero.  

The media melodrama surrounding annual fires does nothing to make anyone any safer. It only fans the flames of a wholly unnecessary hysteria.