Write a commentOn 23 August, the Garnet Fire started in Fresno County, California. As of 14 September, the Garnet Fire burned across thousands of acres.
In Canada, the Tsetzi Lake fire raged on this past week. The United Nations (UN) said Canada experienced "one of its worst wildfire seasons on record, with 6.6 million hectares burned." That led to poor air quality in Oswego, NY.
The years 2023 and 2024 were the hottest on record globally. It's no surprise that 2023 and 2024 set records for forest fires. The University of Maryland wrote that "[an] estimated 36.6 million hectares of forest were disturbed by fire in 2023, followed by 38.3 million hectares in 2024."
The increase in wildfires is a by-product of the increase in the frequency and intensity of heatwaves. The World Meteorological Organization reported, "that July 2025 was the third-warmest July ever recorded." The increase in killer heatwaves "caused approximately 489,000 heat-related deaths annually between 2000 and 2019."
Global Warming is more than a daily phenomenon in our 24-hour news cycles. It's a clear warning that climate change is an extinction-level threat to the human species. The UN Convention to Combat Desertification wrote, "Climate change has made three-quarters [77.6%] of the Earth's land permanently drier in the last three decades. In the future, "up to five billion people could live in drylands by the century's end — causing soils to deplete, water resources to dwindle, and vital ecosystems to collapse."
Right now, "aridity is now affecting 40% of the world's agricultural land and 2.3 billion people, causing intensified wildfires, agricultural collapse and spurring growing mass migrations."
Dwindling water is an existential crisis. Science Advances reported, "Nearly 6 billion people, roughly 75% of the world's population in 2020, live in the 101 countries that have been losing freshwater over the past 22 years." The publication continued, "Recent studies estimate that up to 83% of world's glaciers will likely melt out over the next 80 years; that the severity of drought has worsened in the past 5 years; that surface water storage in rivers, lakes, and reservoirs is in decline; and that half of the world's major aquifers are being rapidly depleted."
The heatwaves also affect our oceans. ScienceDaily wrote, "In 2023, the world's oceans experienced the most intense and widespread marine heatwaves ever recorded, with some events persisting for over 500 days and covering nearly the entire globe." Aussie Animals said, "When ocean temperatures rise dramatically, they trigger a cascade of effects that can lead to mass fish deaths."
While ocean and atmospheric temperatures rise, more of the ice in Greenland, the Antarctic, and the Arctic melts. Which means sea levels rise. 450 researchers at the Australian Antarctic Research Conference stressed, "Runaway ice loss causing rapid and catastrophic sea-level rise is possible within our lifetimes."
The warning signs are everywhere. The world is on fire, in a drought, or underwater. We must stop burning fossil fuels, and we must stop subsidizing the oil and gas industry.
