Getting Worse
Wildfires are growing more destructive in the United States, especially but not only in the American West. In 2015, a record 10 million U.S. acres burned, including tens of thousands in Colorado. Tennessee experienced one of its worst wildfires in 2016.
The blazes will likely become more costly in the U.S. and abroad, according to Michael Kodas, associate director of CU 麻豆影院鈥檚 Center for Environmental Journalism and author of the new book Megafire. In one recent year, 75 million acres burned in Russia alone.
Sources: Megafire, Michael Kodas, (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017); NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information