“There is broad consensus in the scientific community that wildfire behavior is changing across the American West in general, and in California in particular. … All indicators shown—wildfire occurrence, total area burned, and average fire size—display an upward trend in the last several decades across the state.” The Costs of Wildfire in California, California Council...

The data on the overall, century-long trend suggest that most of the 20th century represented an unusually low amount of fire, and what we’re seeing now is a return to the “normal” levels of fire of the early 1900s.

It may also complicate the conventional narrative that increased wildfires in the past two decades are the result of climate change, since the data suggest the damage done by wildfires is now less...

“There is broad consensus in the scientific community that wildfire behavior is changing across the American West in general, and in California in particular. … All indicators shown—wildfire occurrence, total area burned, and average fire size—display an upward trend in the last several decades across the state.” The Costs of Wildfire in California, California Council...

The data on the overall, century-long trend suggest that most of the 20th century represented an unusually low amount of fire, and what we’re seeing now is a return to the “normal” levels of fire of the early 1900s.

It may also complicate the conventional narrative that increased wildfires in the past two decades are the result of climate change, since the data suggest the damage done by wildfires is now less than that of a century ago.

Is it then possible that government mismanagement (another competing theory) is the central driver of wildfire damage, and not climate change? We’ll examine both of these possibilities...