Europe has descended into the age of fire

Europe is on fire: For days, temperatures have skyrocketed above 100 Fahrenheit, shattering records, and causing huge fires that have forced tens of thousands from their homes. The flames have spread to other countries. 75 square miles of the countryside around Bordeaux have burned in the last week. The city of London is not used to fire weather.

Wild fires are a natural phenomenon and have periodically reset the environment for new growth. In modern times, these fires have ballooned into unnatural beasts that destroy the environment. Stephen Pyne is a fire historian.

Over the past several years, many factors have conspired to create the massive wildfires seen in Australia and California. Climate change has created more intense heat waves and longer dry seasons, with more crisp, ready-to-burn vegetation. And human habitation is expanding from city centers into these increasingly dry wild zones. (In California, for example, folks are getting priced out of coastal regions and moving into cheaper areas in the forested eastern parts of the state.) The one constant among wildfires is that humans will find a way to start them, whether it's a spark from a cigarette, a lawnmower, or a firework. "In the US, we have a wildland-urban fire problem—we define it as people foolishly moving into fire-prone areas," says Pyne. But in Europe, he says, it's the reverse: "Europe has an equally large problem, but it's because people have moved out of areas." Advertisement

In countries like Portugal, Spain, and Greece, economic development has led to migration away from pastoral industries. There were not enough people on the landscape to maintain traditional burning or land use. Farmers used to burn their lands to clear out dead brush and make way for new growth to lower the risk of big fires. As in California, many modern European communities have turned to a strategy called fire suppression, which means putting out fires before they have a chance to spread. Fuel is in the country and ready to burn.

There are fewer people in the countryside and that has led to the growth of forests. Fueling the landscape is something that is good for wildlife. Fuel builds up even more with fewer animals chewing through grass. It's just relentless when you start seeing the fires coming out.

The size of the forests in our country has doubled over the course of my career as a firefighter. We're losing the landscape management as our society becomes more urban.