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Forest fire fighters in the Angeles National Forest, California
Photo: Kyle Grillot / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
SPIEGEL:
Mr. Pyne, the sky over California is orange, an army of almost 20,000 emergency services has been fighting for weeks against fires that have devastated more than a million hectares and destroyed over 6,000 houses.
How could that happen?
Pyne:
California just has to burn, geographically it's a fire landscape.
Then it was settled and protected by the fire departments.
But we won't be able to do that in the future.
SPIEGEL:
Because of climate change?
Pyne:
Climate change is one factor among many others, it acts like a fire accelerator.
We have been experiencing huge fires every summer for the last four years, which is noticeable.
There used to be bad fire seasons too, but then there was usually five or ten years of silence.
SPIEGEL:
Are you hoping for autumn?
Pyne:
No, the dry downdraft winds increase the risk of fire, and the autumn wind season is only just beginning. The damage could double by the end of the year.
SPIEGEL:
Even without climate change, California would burn just as violently, writes the Danish economist Bjørn Lomborg. Much larger fires would have raged there more than a hundred years ago.
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