EXPERTS ADVISORY

Multiple wildfires are burning across the Los Angeles area, taking lives, destroying property, affecting air quality and displacing thousands of people. University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) experts are available to discuss.

Jonathan Overpeck is an interdisciplinary climate scientist and dean of the School for Environment and Sustainability. He is an expert on climate and weather extremes, and the impacts of climate change and options for dealing with it. He served as a lead author on the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2007 and 2014 reports.

“The current North American wildfire season is surging across the western U.S. and Canada, made worse by the warming and drying effects of human-caused climate change,” he said. “As climate change worsens, so too does the risk of ever larger and more severe wildfires.

“The growing wildfire crisis is also leading to significant declines in air quality inside. Moreover, there has been a steady growth over recent time in devastating consequences for human infrastructure and communities where fires are occurring. Erosion, landslides and water contamination are also becoming larger problems as climate change-supercharged wildfire seasons continue to get worse.

“Perhaps the most troubling aspect of our growing wildfire crisis is that we know enough to predict where, and even sometimes when, catastrophic wildfires are likely to occur. For example, we knew days in advance that the horrible fires now taking place in California were likely to take place and be unusually challenging. More attention in society needs to be placed on using our scientific knowledge to save lives, infrastructure, and livelihoods.”

Contact: [email protected]

Richard Rood, professor emeritus of climate and space sciences and engineering at SEAS and the College of Engineering, can discuss the intersections of wildfires and climate, and climate and society.

Contact: [email protected]

Read the full advisory on the Michigan News website.