Loss of ancient grazers triggered a global rise in fires

From 50,000 years to 6,000 years ago, many of the world's largest animals, including such iconic grassland grazers as the woolly mammoth, giant bison, and ancient horses, went extinct. The loss of these grazing species triggered ...

Wildfires kill 339,000 people per year: study

Wildfires, peat fires and controlled burns on farming lands kill 339,000 people worldwide each year, said a study released on Saturday that is the first to estimate a death toll for landscape fires.

A human footprint on the Pantanal inferno

One of the world's largest freshwater wetlands—the Pantanal—spreads across a bowl-shaped plain where Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay meet. During the rainy season in most years, floodwater drains from several swollen South ...

NASA 'fire towers' in space watch for wildfires on the rise

(Phys.org) —The Black Forest wildfire this June was one of the most destructive in Colorado history, in terms of homes lost. It started close to houses and quickly spread through the ponderosa pine canopies on the rolling ...

Physicists light 'magnetic fire' to reveal energy's path

New York University physicists have uncovered how energy is released and dispersed in magnetic materials in a process akin to the spread of forest fires, a finding that has the potential to deepen our understanding of self-sustained ...

Brazilian Amazon deforestation hits new Jan-Apr high

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon hit a new high in the first four months of the year, according to data released Friday, a worrying trend after the devastation caused by record fires last year.

Each Antarctic tourist effectively melts 83 metric tons of snow

Every summer, as the sea ice surrounding Antarctica retreats, tens of thousands of tourists and scientists flock to the landmass by boat and plane. The remote continent is becoming increasingly accessible—during the 2019-20 ...

Forest fires in Sierra Nevada driven by past land use

Forest fire activity in California's Sierra Nevada since 1600 has been influenced more by how humans used the land than by climate, according to new research led by University of Arizona and Penn State scientists.

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