“A haze was in the air so that you could sometimes not see the mountains or where the land met the sky… I could taste smoke and smell it… I saw hills on fire.”
- Richard Ford, Wildlife
- Richard Ford, Wildlife
Summer, 2026. The hottest summer on record in many countries around the world. And the most wildfires on record. At the time of writing, there are or have been wildfires in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, France, Spain, Greece, Netherlands, Croatia, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. (And that’s only a partial list).
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Europe alone saw more than 1,600 wildfires, as over 5,000 square kilometres of land was laid waste by ravenous blazes. (That’s approximately one-third of Northern Ireland, roughly the size of the state of Delaware, or larger than the entire country of Luxembourg.)
In France and Spain, more than 350,000 people were forced to flee their homes as wildfires raged near Bordeaux and Madrid. During the June heatwave this summer 16,000 people died across Europe. Spain saw its largest wildfire on record, while scorching fires burned 7.9 million acres in the USA, more than 50% higher than the 10-year average.
In the last 21 years, wildfires have more than doubled worldwide. Globally, 160 Mha (million hectares) were lost to wildfires between 2001 and 2025. That’s approximately 3.8% of global tree cover. (The faint glimmer of good news is that over roughly the same period, the world experienced a net change of less than that, -100 Mha (-2.4%) in tree cover, because of tree cover gains over the same period.)
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Wildfires are a problem that is huge and getting worse. As anyone who reads or watches the news knows: wildfires are becoming more frequent and more severe. They’re starting earlier, lasting longer, erupting in more places around the globe, and causing more devastation than ever before. It’s a bad and seemingly ineluctable trend.
Our explosively flammable world
Why? Climate change, human activity, emissions, and expanding urban areas are the main culprits. “We have never had as hot, dry conditions as frequently before,” explains Katharine Hayhoe, Chief Scientist at the Nature Conservancy.
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“Climate change increases the risk of fire weather, drying out soil and vegetation.” It’s the difference between dropping a match onto green wood and dropping a match onto bone-dry kindling. The latter is almost certain to result in a fire - and that’s how wildfires start around the world.
As writer John Vaillant puts it, “We now live in a world that is more explosively flammable than at any time in human history.” The result: over the past ten years, many countries have seen record-breaking wildfire seasons.
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What happens? These fires destroy land, trees and property, kill humans and animals, and release a lot of hazardous smoke, affecting air quality and public health. Often, there are winds that spread fires, as already dry land turns into flame and smoke and ash. Fire-driven weather systems generate hurricane-force winds and lightning that ignites more fires.
“The sky rains fire,” Vaillant observes, “and the air comes alive in roaring flames.”
“The sky rains fire,” Vaillant observes, “and the air comes alive in roaring flames.”
Exorbitant costs
What are the costs? Exorbitant. The environmental damage, human death toll, property, infrastructure and fire-related health damage is horrifyingly high - and getting worse each year.
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This summer, Spain’s wildfires cost over €3.28 billion (£2.8 billion) in firefighting alone.
But the cost goes far beyond firefighting. “The eventual bill will include destroyed homes, businesses and crops, disrupted tourism and industry, smoke-related health effects, added strain on public finances and potentially higher insurance premiums,” according to Professor Simone Varotto of the University of Reading.
The United States Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) estimates the total U.S. economic toll as high as $893 billion (£660 billion) in severe years (and every year recently is a severe year), including related costs, such as lost income, property damage, insurance payouts, and evacuation expenditures.
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It will get worse
The summer of 2026 has shattered meteorological records and caused untold damage, death and destruction. But the worst news perhaps is that this summer is not a blip.
Climate experts fully expect the same or worse in years to come. Residents will flee, land, trees and property will burn, people will suffer, there will be deaths and extensive damage, and leaders will struggle to respond.
“It will inevitably get worse,” says Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “We’ll be passing the limits of adaptation.”
Climate experts fully expect the same or worse in years to come. Residents will flee, land, trees and property will burn, people will suffer, there will be deaths and extensive damage, and leaders will struggle to respond.
“It will inevitably get worse,” says Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “We’ll be passing the limits of adaptation.”
Defending forests from fires
All our projects globally recognise how important it is to protect forests and land from fire. For example, our partners in South America, Acción Andina, are working with firefighters to teach communities the tools and tactics they need - from creating firebreaks to clearing flammable undergrowth - to prevent fires from starting and limit the damage when they do erupt. They’ve seen fires ravage the Andes, killing people, animals, trees and crops, but now their workshops have dramatically reduced the number of fires and saved forest wildlife in the area. In their words: “In the face of fire, it is not enough to put out the flames. We must restore life, with every tree, with every community, with every decision."
The European Forest Institute is calling for more preventative measures and nature-based solutions, such as increased funding to improve forest management to stop fires before they start.
British Prime Minister Andy Burnham recently warned that Britain is a “tinderbox” and is proposing more support for firefighters and a ban on disposable barbecues.
In the U.S. and Canada, there’s a focus on human activity, stopping “preventable wildfires” as 9 out of 10 wildfires in North America start because of human action. The US Department of the Interior runs programs and publishes literature that aims to stop campfire and vehicle activities that can cause wildfires. While Trump calls for sanctions and his administration has cut funding for the DOI, wiser minds in the U.S. and Canada call for increased funding and cross-border agreements that allow both nations to share both firefighters and specialised aircraft.
Focus, attention, action
Around the world, we need more focus, more attention and more action that addresses both the causes and symptoms of wildfires. We need prevention, not just firefighting. We need to listen to climate experts and plan for heatwaves and wildfires in order to save forests, fauna, flora, property and lives.
You can’t fight fire with fire. But you can fight fire with outrage, awareness, education, funding, policy, legislation, tools and tactics. We need to restore forests, protect communities and protect our future.
