Apocalyptic images of fire and brimstone may well be the future of our planet, according to a new scientific study which found that the recent uptick in forest fires is due in large part to human-caused climate change.
The research team, from the University of Idaho and Columbia University, said that scientists have known for some time that global warming is making wildfires longer and more powerful as they eat up wide swathes of forestland across the western United States. But the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on Monday, sought to determine just how much of that increased fire activity can be attributed to anthropogenic warming—and how much worse will it get.