Well actually, Smokey never left, although he was defamed in certain circles. Here’s BCm and here’s Burnie the Bobcat. As I said on XTwit or TwitX last weekish.
Thanks to Wildfire Today for this:
Air quality publication HouseFresh analyzed NIFC data from 2023 and ranked the causes of wildfires by number of occurrences. Of the recorded fires, 72.6 percent were directly caused by humans.
The bulk of last year’s wildfires were caused by debris burning and open burning, resulting in 1,302 wildfires. That is an increase from the 1,120 fires started by debris and open burning in 2022. Equipment and vehicle use, power generation/transmission/distribution, and arson were the next listed causes of wildfires in 2023 at 507, 390, and 364 respectively.
“The balance between human and natural fires has almost reversed since 2014, although the trend has not been smooth,” the HouseFresh report said. “The proportion of human-caused wildfires grew significantly in 2015, 2016 and 2020, peaking at 77.2 percent in 2020.”
Here’s a link to the Housefresh report.
A person might wonder if some climate modeling of wildfire dollars could be rerouted to understanding the social science of human ignitions and looking at successful interventions?