Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters

by Steven E. Koonin

“Human influences” can take many forms. Forest management (How much fuel is allowed to accumulate? Are fires suppressed or allowed to burn? How much development is permitted in or near forests?) and human-caused ignition (nearly 85 percent of US wildland fires have a human cause) are among the contributors.34 While we may not be able to fully quantify, much less control, the many climate-related influences on wildfires, we have significant power to address these human factors. By making the conversation about wildfires only one of unavoidable doom due to “climate change,” we miss an opportunity to take steps that would more directly curtail these catastrophes.