New research found that smoke from the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, carried high concentrations of lead. An environmental toxicologist explains what else you’re breathing and how to stay safe.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Wildfires
Displaying 1 - 20 of 115 articles
Every year, the number of wildfires caused by humans spikes on Independence Day. There are safer ways to celebrate amid the heat and drought.
How to prevent future disasters by learning from the past. Listen to episode 21 of The Conversation Weekly podcast.
Managed retreat doesn’t always mean leaving. It’s about preserving the essential while redesigning communities to be better for everyone. Here’s what that can look like.
Scientists studied charcoal layers in the sediment of lake beds across the Rockies to track fires over time. They found increasing fire activity as the climate warmed.
Satellites can already spot a new fire within minutes, but the information they beam back to Earth isn’t getting to everyone who needs it or used as well as it could be.
Federal weather scientists are pushing to make the US more ‘weather-ready,’ which could mean prepping for fires, flooding or storms depending on where you live. The common factor: thinking ahead.
As the risk of fires rises in areas once considered too wet to burn, it creates hazards for mountain communities and for downstream water supplies.
Drought conditions are so bad, fish hatcheries are trucking their salmon to the ocean and ranchers are worried about having enough water for their livestock.
A new study finds more deciduous trees like aspen are growing in after severe fires in the region, and that has some unexpected impacts.
Most fires are started by humans, but warmer and drier summers will mean a small spark will more easily turn into a serious fire.
Permanently protecting large, mature forests is a faster and cheaper way to stabilize Earth’s climate than complex carbon capture and storage schemes, and more effective than planting new trees.
What if we had a system, like Medicare, where costly fire prevention measures were subsidised?
NOAA released its list of climate and weather disasters that cost the nation more than $1 billion each. Like many climate and weather events this past year, it shattered the record.
While climate change is certain, some uncertainty remains in its severity — and that’s where the hope shines through.
Many storms, heatwaves, fires and droughts slipped under the radar this year.
The curator at UC Merced describes the evacuation and shows a selection of photographs from the 110-year history of the park.
Thousands of chemical compounds in wildfire smoke are interacting with each other and sunlight as the smoke travels. For people downwind, it can become more toxic over time.
A new study shows how toxic chemicals like benzene are leaching into water systems after nearby fires. The pipes don’t have to burn – they just have to heat up.
Peat beds around the world hold huge quantities of carbon and keep it from warming the planet. But rising temperatures and over-use could turn them from a brake on climate change into an accelerant.
Job Board
-
Deputy Chief Executive
-
RESEARCH ASSISTANT – CLINICAL TRIALS IN PRIMARY CARE MENTAL HEALTH
-
Senior Research Fellow NATSEM
-
Griffith University Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme - Phase Two
-
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Education, Experience & Employability
Top contributors
-
Wildfire Specialist at the University of California Cooperative Extension; Adjunct Professor Bren School of Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Barbara
-
Sr. Associate Vice President for Research and Research Professor, University of Oregon
-
Academic Coordinator, California Institute for Water Resources, University of California, Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
-
Associate Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst
-
Assistant Professor of Community and Environmental Health, Boise State University
-
Associate Professor of Civil, Environmental & Ecological Engineering, Director of the Healthy Plumbing Consortium and Center for Plumbing Safety, Purdue University
-
Associate Professor of Geography and Director, Earth Lab, University of Colorado Boulder
-
Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, Boise State University
-
David Bowman is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professor of Pyrogeography and Fire Science, University of Tasmania
-
ARC DECRA fellow, The University of Melbourne
-
Senior Lecturer in Ecology and Centenary Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne
-
Emeritus Professor, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University
-
Professor of Conservation Science, Lancaster University
-
Associate Professor of Forest and Natural Resource Policy, Colorado State University
-
Assistant Professor, Disaster Research Center, University of Delaware
