do need to start preparing for a future in which we experience these longer more intense wildfires more frequently dahl said people also need to think about where they live the experts say the years 2017 and 2018 which saw the camp fire that accounted for more than 80 deaths in butte county california were bad fire years but 2019 was relatively calm for example while the west coast wildfires are no where near as intense it is estimated that the australia brush fires that began at the end of 2019 released more than 800 million tons of carbon dioxide nearly double the entire countys annual emissions from fossil fuels dahl said on the west coast it all has to do with a dry season thats getting hotter and longer duffy explained severe drought combined with recordbreaking temperatures as well as high wind events and low humidity at the beginning of september set the stage for the fires to ignite raymond said fires are a natural part of forest ecosystems and the fire suppression is preventing the natural fires that should be facilitate the natural renewal frederic j brownafp via getty images more immediate solutions come in the form of clearing vegetation around structures and adhering to higher codes and using fire resistant materials when building new construction which will help the structures survive the blazes and weeks after the wildfires broke out the smoke had traveled 5000 miles to europe more we do as scientists need to be clear that it isnt necessarily climate change thats causing these problems raymond said more why climate change is also a public health problem when you add a wind event on top of that it then kicks the fires into high gear allowing the fire to spread rapidly into communities harvey said while the overall assumption is that the fires will get worse people shouldnt assume that every fire season will be worst than the last duffy said we will continue to see more extreme weather while the incremental rise in global temperatures itself does not mean much to people the consequences of that warming will raymond said what can be done to mitigate the fire danger the fires are the result of an extreme warming and drying trend the warm dry climate has always been the norm for much of the west and serves as fuel for the wildfires it will get worse unless we act duffy said the consequences climate scientists have long been warning about are coming to fruition in the increased intensity of natural disasters around the globe recently in the form of devastating wildfires that ravaged the western states and enshrouded areas not plagued with flames under hazes of smoke a large population has moved into wildland urban interface to get more space and closer to nature raymond said a scorched landscape from the bobcat fire in the mojave desert community of juniper hills calif sept 19 2020 the ignition source of wildfires whether lightning or