Wildfires fuel climate change, and climate change fuels wildfires. PCS Professor Douglas P. Fry argues in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that the threats posed by extreme wildfires are a global challenge and require a cooperative global response.

Whether the challenge involves extreme wildfires or more generally existential threats facing humanity, the costs of doing nothing, or of not doing enough soon enough, will far exceed the price of implementing a well-funded, concerted global fire prevention and firefighting strategy.

The necessity of maintaining community fire departments, to save lives and minimize property damage, is taken for granted as important and beneficial. Now the fire threat has truly gone global. A collaborative global approach is urgently needed to systematically address this climate-related challenge.

— Dr. Douglas P. Fry, Department Chair and Peace and Conflict Studies Professor