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Are wildfires getting worse?

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NASA.

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We Asked a NASA Scientist

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Yes, unfortunately, they are.

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We're seeing increases in the intensity and the severity, 

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the overall burned area of wildfires and the duration of fire across the fire season.

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And while fire is a natural part of ecosystems,

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what's really driving this change is we're seeing
a lot of changes in our climate.

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We're seeing increases in global temperature

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as well as more extreme weather events, so longer droughts.

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And so we have these hot and dry conditions, which makes vegetation,

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forests and grasses more available to burn because they're drier.

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And so with these drier conditions and these drier fuels,

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we're likely to see more fires.

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And this is happening in many locations all across the world.

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This can be really detrimental to the ecosystem, but also to human health, 

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where we're seeing people going to the hospital with respiratory issues

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and smoke can just travel many thousands of miles with these fires.

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How can we help? What can we do?

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One thing that I find really hopeful is that NASA continues to study wildfires around the globe.

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We have people going out on the land to make measurements.

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We have airborne campaigns that fly around to better understand

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wildfires from the air, how it's impacting smoke, where wildfires are burning.

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And then, of course, we have satellite imagery, which gives us a global picture

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of wildfires all around the world all the time.

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So are wildfires getting worse?

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Yes, they are.

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But there are ways that we can all think about this together.

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And I think just learning about these issues and being able to share that with other members in our community

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is a way we can all go forward and think
about climate change and wildfires.

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We Asked a NASA Scientist

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NASA. A NASA 360 Production.