The journal Science recently published an open letter written by four scientists from different international universities, including the UGR, to promote critical debate on the environment
Climate change, rural neglect, and forest management have increased the virulence of wildfires and their catastrophic consequences for both nature and humans
Australia, Brazil, the United States, and Russia are just some of the countries that have headlined in the last year due to an increasingly urgent and devastating phenomenon: the growing frequency and extent of wildfires.
The debacle surrounding environmental policy has led four international researchers, including a scientist from the University of Granada (UGR), to write an open letter to Science, one of the most prestigious journals in the world scientific community.
The purpose of the letter is to warn of the continuing devaluation of policy debates on wildfires, undermining public scientific understanding and promoting instead the often-biased opinions of politicians.
In their letter, headed Wildfire debate needs science, not politics, researcher Alexandro Leverkus (UGR) and his colleagues Simon Thorn (Universität Würzburg), David Lindenmayer (Australian National University), and Juli Pausas (CIDE-CSIC) warn that, despite the decades of research that have generated vast scientific knowledge about the origins and consequences of wildfires, politicians are not leveraging this knowledge sufficiently to inform policies that facilitate a sustainable coexistence with fire. The terrible Yellowstone wildfires of 1988, those of South Australia in 2009, and other such disasters proved a critical turning point for researchers, with numerous scientific studies having been carried out since. These have helped to understand both the important role that fire plays in the functioning of ecosystems and the causes and potentially devastating consequences of the notable increase in the frequency, extent, and severity of these events on the planet.
However, these researchers warn that the public debate on wildfires is not taking account of these scientific discoveries. Recently, politicians from different sides in various countries have been arguing about whether it is climate change or forest management that is ‘to blame’ for wildfires (although it is always the fault of the political opponent). Such debates only simplify the complex reality of the problem, as the causes of the increase in wildfires are many, and not all are applicable in each region. It is the prevalence of such arbitrary political comments that have provoked the indignation of this group of researchers, who criticise the treatment of public policies on such a crucial issue as “superficial”.
Fire is a double-edged sword. When not overly frequent, wildfires are necessary for the proper functioning of ecosystems, for biodiversity, and for society. Conversely, the occurrence of more widespread, frequent, and severe fires, or outbreaks in ecosystems where fire does not occur naturally, also pose a risk to biodiversity and ecosystems.
Climate change has had several effects on wildfires worldwide. These include prolonging the fire season and the frequency of dry years, further extending the periods of protracted drought that magnifies fire propagation and intensity, and the spread of fires through ecosystems that were hitherto considered non-flammable. This virulent trend is also detrimental to the human species, as the production of unprecedented volumes of smoke is harmful to our health and releases huge amounts of greenhouse gases, which, in turn, exacerbates the climate change problem.
In contrast, the scientists are endeavouring to use their findings to promote public policies for a healthier coexistence with fire, as the authors of the letter explain. One such example is the use of prescribed fire to prevent uncontrolled fires and the creation of heterogeneous landscapes in restoration programmes to prevent the spread of fires via large and homogeneous masses of vegetation.
Alexandro Leverkus of the UGR’s Department of Ecology points out that “we are all actively working in research and awareness-raising to encourage policies related to the countryside and wildfires that focus on sustainable coexistence with fire.”
The publication of the open letter in Science, when the prevailing issue of the moment is the Covid-19 crisis, is an encouraging sign for UGR researcher. He takes the publication of the letter to be “a recognition of the seriousness of the global wildfire crisis and the importance of implementing management measures that are based on scientific evidence to safeguard ecosystems and protect life on the planet.”
Bibliography:
Alexandro B. Leverkus, Simon Thorn, David B. Lindenmayer, & Juli G. Pausas (2020), ‘Wildfire debate needs science, not politics’, Science 370. Online: DOI: 10.1126/ science.abf1326
Media enquiries:
Alexandro B. Leverkus
Department of Ecology, University of Granada
Email: leverkus@ugr.es
