Firefighting strategies need an extreme makeover, UN warns
Nations need to spend more money learning to live with wildfires rather than burning through cash fighting them, says a new United Nations report. The report predicts a dramatic rise in “extreme” fires and warns that there needs to be a “radical” shift in how governments address them.
Globally, extreme wildfires are expected to increase up to 14 percent this decade and 50 percent by the end of the century. Conventional firefighting, which tackles blazes as they happen, won’t be enough to meet the new threats, says the report published today by the United Nations Environment Programme and Norwegian environmental nonprofit GRID-Arendal.
To cope, the report says, two-thirds of government spending on wildfires ought to go towards preparing...