Climate Change and Wildfires: Crisis Demands Action, But Whose?
Intra-Party Split Detected
Most left-leaning sources emphasize climate change as the primary driver and call for systemic mitigation and 'wartime mindset' action, while some voices (e.g., Democracy Now's Ángel Luis Lara) frame the crisis more through anti-neoliberal, anti-austerity politics, and Axios pieces adopt a more centrist, adaptation-focused tone that avoids assigning political blame.
Left says
- •Rising global temperatures, prolonged drought, and shifting weather patterns are measurably lengthening fire seasons and intensifying blazes, turning once-rare catastrophes into near-annual events across the globe.
- •Fossil fuel combustion is the root driver of the climate emergency fueling these megafires, and leaders who avoid naming that connection are failing to address the crisis at its source.
- •Decades of austerity and underinvestment in public services have left communities in places like Spain and France less able to respond to disasters, showing the crisis is also a story of political choices, not just weather.
- •Fighting this crisis requires a wartime-scale mobilization of resources and pre-emptive investment, not just reactive cleanup after each disaster.
Right says
- •Wildfires have always been a natural part of the landscape, and factors like dense forests, poor land management, arson, and expanding development into fire-prone areas play a major role independent of climate change.
- •States and communities are already taking practical, effective steps — like Texas's flood sirens, grid hardening, and building-code upgrades — showing that adaptation and local resilience work without requiring sweeping climate mandates.
- •Emphasis should be placed on near-term preparedness, infrastructure investment, and smart development policy rather than on attributing every disaster to global emissions trends.
- •Grid reliability challenges from extreme heat and surging AI-driven electricity demand require pragmatic, technology-driven solutions like battery storage and flexible data centers, not ideological climate mandates.
Common Take
High Consensus- Wildfires are becoming larger, more frequent, and harder to control across the western U.S., Europe, and beyond.
- Existing infrastructure and communities were largely built for a climate that no longer matches current conditions.
- Practical adaptation measures — evacuation planning, grid hardening, building codes, and early-warning systems — save lives regardless of the debate over root causes.
- People living through these disasters are focused on immediate survival and preparedness, not abstract policy debates, in the moment of crisis.
The Arguments
Left argues
Rising temperatures, prolonged drought, and longer fire seasons are measurably transforming once-rare wildfire catastrophes into near-annual events across multiple continents, and leaders who avoid naming fossil fuel combustion as the root driver are failing to address the crisis at its source.
Right counters
Even climate scientists and reporters acknowledge that climate change doesn't cause wildfires and that direct attribution is difficult — dense forests, arson, and development into fire-prone land are independent drivers that would produce destructive fires even without warming.
Right argues
Wildfires have always been part of the natural landscape, and factors like poor forest management, suspected arson, and expanding development into fire-prone areas play a major, independently verifiable role — as shown by Spokane's own devastating 1991 fire, decades before today's climate framing.
Left counters
Acknowledging that fire is natural doesn't erase the trend: nearly every year for the past decade has brought a catastrophic fire of historic magnitude, and hotter, drier conditions are the multiplier turning manageable fires into megafires that destroy entire towns.
Right argues
States and communities are already proving adaptation works without sweeping mandates — Texas's flood sirens saved lives during 2026 flooding, and grid hardening, battery storage, and building-code upgrades in Florida, Louisiana, and Texas show pragmatic resilience in action.
Left counters
Even the experts cited on adaptation warn it's 'running behind the scale of the challenge' and that 'most of our infrastructure is not built for what is coming' — piecemeal local fixes cannot substitute for addressing the emissions driving ever-worsening extremes.
Left argues
The wildfire crisis is also a story of political choices, not just weather — decades of austerity and underinvestment in public services in Spain and France left communities less able to respond, meaning neoliberal policy failures compounded the climate-driven disaster.
Right counters
Blaming austerity conveniently sidesteps that even well-funded, disaster-savvy states like Texas and Florida are managing risk effectively through targeted infrastructure investment, suggesting competent governance and smart engineering matter more than any particular economic ideology.
Left argues
Fighting this crisis demands wartime-scale mobilization and pre-emptive investment, not just reactive cleanup after each disaster, given that comparisons to WWII-level evacuations from Macron and others reflect a scale of emergency incommensurate with piecemeal responses.
Right counters
Surging AI-driven electricity demand and heat-driven grid stress require immediate, pragmatic, technology-neutral solutions — batteries, flexible data centers, demand response — that can be deployed now, rather than waiting on the political consensus a 'wartime mobilization' framing would require.
Challenge Questions
These questions target genuine internal contradictions — meant to provoke honest reflection.
Right asks Left
“If decades of underinvestment and poor land management are acknowledged even by climate scientists as major independent contributors to fire destruction, why should the primary policy response be a global emissions-focused 'wartime mobilization' rather than the near-term forest management, zoning, and infrastructure fixes that are within any single government's immediate control?”
Left asks Right
“If adaptation measures like Texas's flood sirens and grid hardening are held up as proof that local resilience works without climate mandates, how should policymakers plan for ERCOT's own projection that electricity demand will nearly double by 2032, when the same extreme heat driving that demand is also degrading the power plants meant to supply it?”
Outlier Report
Left Fringe
Figures like Seth Klein and some Democracy Now commentators pushing 'wartime mobilization' and anti-fossil-fuel framing represent a more activist minority, roughly 15-20% of the left, as most Democrats prioritize practical mitigation over revolutionary economic restructuring.
Right Fringe
Commentators like Marjorie Taylor Greene or certain Fox News voices who dismiss climate change entirely as a factor in wildfires represent a vocal but minority faction, maybe 20-25% of the right, since many Republican-leaning voters and officials (e.g., in Texas and Florida) support adaptation infrastructure even while avoiding 'climate change' language.
Noise Assessment
High noise ratio — cable news and social media amplify the most polarized framings (apocalyptic climate rhetoric vs. total climate denial), while most Americans occupy a pragmatic middle ground focused on immediate safety and infrastructure rather than ideological battles.
Sources (6)
<p>SEATTLE — Wildfire <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/07/17/summer-smoke-season-wildfires?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">smoke</a> blanketing this coastal city and much of the West is bringing an ominous reminder that the reach of destructive fires is growing. </p><p><strong>Why it matters: </strong>Climate scientists study how global warming increases the odds of wildfire. People living through it are confronting a more immediate question: where is truly safe anymore?</p><hr /><p><strong>The big picture: </strong>Wildfires intensified by climate change are like an unforgiving spotlight sweeping across the world. No one really knows where it will stop next.</p><p><strong>Driving the news: </strong>Right now, that spotlight is on Spokane, Washington, where a historic wildfire has destroyed neighborhoods and remains uncontrolled. Fires are also burning in the Bordeaux region in France, outside Madrid and in British Columbia.</p><ul><li>"I don't think we've had one single year in the past decade where there hasn't been at least one catastrophic fire event of some magnitude that looks just like this," said climate scientist Daniel Swain, in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSvffYuJ0d8" target="_blank">a virtual presentation</a> Monday showing Spokane neighborhoods burned to the ground.</li></ul><p><strong>Catch up quick: </strong>Catastrophic fires have repeatedly destroyed populated communities:</p><ul><li><a href="https://science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-observatory/heat-fuels-fire-at-fort-mcmurray-87992/?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">Fort McMurray</a>, Alberta (2016); <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/How-the-deadly-Tubbs-Fire-blitzed-Santa-Rosa-12268552.php" target="_blank">Santa Rosa</a>, California (2017); <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/11/08/1209471739/a-california-town-wiped-off-the-map-by-wildfire-is-still-recovering-five-years-o" target="_blank">Paradise</a>, California (2018); <a href="https://www.moodys.com/web/en/us/insights/insurance/black-summer--five-years-on---a-sobering-reminder-of-australia-b.html" target="_blank">Australia's "Black Summer</a>" (2019-20); Oregon <a href="https://apps.oregon.gov/oregon-newsroom/OR/OEM/Posts/Post/five-year-commemoration-labor-day-fires?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">Labor Day fires</a> that reached the edge of Portland (2020); Denver suburbs of <a href="https://research.noaa.gov/looking-back-at-colorados-marshall-fire/" target="_blank">Louisville and Superior</a>, Colorado (2021); <a href="https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/dashboard/data-catalog/lahaina-fire" target="_blank">Lahaina</a>, Hawaii (2023); <a href="https://recovery.lacounty.gov/disasters/palisades-fire/" target="_blank">Pacific Palisades</a>, California (2025).</li></ul><p><strong>My thought bubble:</strong> Tragically, we must add Spokane to that list. The fires were a wake-up call for my parents, who live in another part of the city near forested land.</p><ul><li>We didn't talk about climate change. We talked about evacuation plans and how quickly they could get their cats into carriers.</li></ul><p><strong>Reality check:</strong> Climate change doesn't cause wildfires, which have always been part of nature. Spokane itself suffered a devastating wildfire <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/oct/17/oct-16-1991-when-winds-fanned-the-flames-of-disast/" target="_blank">in 1991</a>.</p><ul><li>But climate change is<em> </em>creating hotter weather and drier vegetation that make wildfires larger and more intense.</li><li>Meanwhile, population growth into fire-prone landscapes is also increasing exposure.</li></ul><p><strong>Threat level: </strong>When those latent trends intersect with highly variable factors — high winds, lightning or even <a href="https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/aug/04/suspected-old-trails-arsonist-aaron-farinacci-cont/" target="_blank">a suspected arsonist</a>, such as in Spokane — devastating fires are ignited.</p><p><strong>What they're saying:</strong> "Wildfires may look random on a map, but they're rarely random from a risk perspective," said Firas Saleh, who directs wildfire models at Moody's.</p><ul><li>Places as varied as Spokane, France and Hawaii share hotter temperatures, <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/08/03/us-wildfire-season-large-fires-10-year-average" target="_blank">longer fire seasons</a>, more burnable vegetation and growing development in fire-prone landscapes, Saleh said.</li></ul><p><strong>Between the lines:</strong> Climate change is only one factor behind destructive fires, making direct attribution difficult — and often beside the point for people living through them.</p><ul><li>Susan Prichard, a forest ecologist at the University of Washington, said she wonders if the scientific community made a mistake assuming people would become more concerned about climate change as extreme weather — made worse due to climate change — becomes more common.</li></ul><p><strong>"I'm not a social scientist</strong>, but I do know through lived experience that saying 'it's getting so bad, are you now going to be part of the solution?' doesn't seem to work," said Prichard, who has evacuated from the small town where she lives in the Cascade foothills in Washington, five times in the last 20 years due to wildfires.</p><p><strong>Zoom in:</strong> A few days after Saturday's onslaught of fires, I asked my parents if they had thought about climate change. Not really, they said, as they were still focused on the crisis at hand, though they added they also see the climate connection. "I just want summer to be over," my mother said.</p><ul><li>That is an increasingly common refrain in these parts, unfortunately.</li></ul><p><strong>"That's a form of coping:</strong> How do we manage the terror and dread of it all?" said Claire Rapp, a Colorado State University scientist specializing in behavior science and wildfires.</p><ul><li>Once the immediate crisis passes, Rapp recommends developing an evacuation plan and improving household preparedness while recognizing that climate change is increasing overall wildfire risk.</li></ul><p><strong>Zoom out:</strong> More Americans say they've personally experienced climate change as heat, wildfire smoke and floods become more common, according to <a href="https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/attribution-across-america/?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank">Yale University research</a>. </p><ul><li>But recognizing climate change and thinking about it in the middle of a disaster are two very different things.</li></ul><p><strong>What we're watching: </strong>That disconnect helps explain why two conversations increasingly happen in parallel: One about near-term adaptation and another about long-term climate mitigation. </p><ul><li>Cutting greenhouse gas emissions matters over decades, but it doesn't help someone deciding whether to evacuate tonight.</li></ul><p><strong>What's next</strong>: More wildfires, I'm afraid.</p><p><strong>The bottom line: </strong>"It's just early August," said Prichard. "Some fires that are burning will not be put out until rain and snow hits them, and it's just a long way to go until then."</p>
<p>Climate adaptation is increasingly moving from planning to real-world action as <a href="https://www.axios.com/energy-climate/extreme-weather" target="_blank">heat</a> waves, droughts, wildfires, floods and hurricanes test communities across the U.S.</p><p><strong>Why it matters:</strong> Even if greenhouse gas emissions decline, many communities are <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/04/01/rainstorms-intense-climate-change" target="_blank">already facing</a> more frequent or intense <a href="https://www.axios.com/energy-climate/climate-change" target="_blank">climate</a> extremes, prompting officials to invest in infrastructure designed to reduce future damage.</p><hr /><p><strong>Driving the news:</strong> After <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/07/06/texas-floods-national-weather-service" target="_blank">catastrophic flooding</a> killed more than 130 people in Texas Hill Country last year, newly installed sirens were credited with warning residents during July's floods, which killed <a href="https://apnews.com/article/texas-floods-third-person-killed-d9375deb56732e862408f93c32fd095e" target="_blank">three</a> people but avoided a repeat of the 2025 disaster.</p><ul><li>It's an example of Republican-led states adapting after disaster, said Alice Hill, senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations.</li><li>Texas expanded flood-<a href="https://abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/abbott-says-flood-warning-systems-saved-lives-signals-more-investment-next-legislation" target="_blank">warning</a> systems and floodplain <a href="https://www.kvue.com/article/news/state/texas-news/texas-flood/burnet-county-texas-july-floods-federal-buyout-millions-allocated/269-eb5e51d6-75b7-49b7-9c8a-6bd501debc1a" target="_blank">buyouts</a> after the Hill Country floods, while Houston strengthened building codes after <a href="https://www.axios.com/2017/12/15/timeline-the-days-after-harvey-and-katrina-struck-1513305218" target="_blank">Hurricane Harvey</a>.</li><li>"Building to the last disaster is like preparing for the last war," says Hill, who served as a senior resilience policy official on President Obama's National Security Council.</li></ul><p><strong>Between the lines: </strong>Hill said "almost all the infrastructure" in the U.S. "was built for a climate that essentially no longer exists."</p><ul><li>Mikhail Chester, director of the Metis Center for Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University, tells Axios that the infrastructure industry is learning that climate hazards "cost more to ignore than to actually start to design for" and that these risks "have become that much more real over the past decade."</li><li>However, Hill says adaptation is still running behind the scale of the challenge.</li></ul><p><strong>The big picture:</strong> Rather than rebuilding after every disaster, many states are redesigning infrastructure for the climate threats they face most — from hurricanes in the Southeast to droughts and wildfires in the West.</p><ul><li>Chester says insurers are helping shape adaptation by pricing climate risk into infrastructure decisions.</li><li>Hill says insurers have largely focused on limiting their exposure, with only a handful of programs rewarding resilience with lower premiums.</li></ul><p><strong>State of play: </strong>Since <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/09/30/hurricane-ian-florida-death-toll" target="_blank">Hurricane Ian</a>, Florida has <a href="https://time.com/6225970/climate-proof-towns-extreme-weather/" target="_blank">invested</a> in backup power, stronger building codes and microgrids — small-scale power grids that supply electricity to local areas and can operate independently when the main electric grid fails.</p><ul><li>Louisiana utilities have hardened substations and strengthened the electric grid after repeated <a href="https://www.axios.com/2021/09/06/hurricane-ida-death-toll-rises-power-outage?ref=levernews.com" target="_blank">hurricanes</a>.</li><li>California has <a href="https://www.cpuc.ca.gov/industries-and-topics/electrical-energy/infrastructure/electric-reliability/undergrounding-program-description" target="_blank">expanded</a> wildfire-resistant building standards, underground power lines and drought <a href="https://geofluid.com/blogs/global-success-stories-how-singapore-namibia-and-california-are-leading-the-future-of-water-reuse/" target="_blank">measures</a> such as water recycling and groundwater recharge.</li><li>Los Angeles has <a href="https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/heat-islands/heat-island-cooling-strategies_.html" target="_blank">added</a> cool roofs and urban forestry, while Phoenix has <a href="https://www.gpec.org/blog/arizona-water-a-history-of-conservation-drip/" target="_blank">become</a> a national leader in <a href="https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/heat-islands/heat-island-cooling-strategies_.html" target="_blank">cooling</a> centers and other <a href="https://www.phoenix.gov/administration/departments/heat.html" target="_blank">heat</a>- and <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/phoenix/2026/02/18/colorado-river-basin-states-missed-deadline-federal-solution" target="_blank">drought-adaptation</a> measures.</li></ul><p><strong>Zoom in: </strong>Some communities are moving ahead despite federal funding constraints and the Trump administration's push to <a href="https://www.axios.com/2017/12/15/phrase-climate-change-scrubbed-from-nih-website-1513305064" target="_blank">scrub references</a> to climate change <a href="https://www.axios.com/2025/01/31/health-cdc-websites-data-removed-trump" target="_blank">from government websites</a>.</p><ul><li>One example is <a href="https://www.axios.com/2022/10/11/hurricane-ian-solar-power-off-grid" target="_blank">Babcock Ranch</a>, Florida, where a developer buried power lines, improved storm drainage, and built more wind-resistant homes. The community has since weathered four hurricanes with little damage, Hill says.</li><li>"We're seeing lots of exciting developments," Hill says. But she warns that "most of our infrastructure is not built for what is coming."</li></ul><p><strong>Zoom out: </strong>Professional engineering organizations are publishing climate-adaptation standards that states and local governments can adopt.</p><ul><li>Chester says engineers increasingly recognize the limits of relying solely on concrete channels and pipes, prompting greater use of parks, wetlands and other forms of green infrastructure.</li></ul><p><strong>The bottom line:</strong> Communities are showing climate adaptation can reduce damage and save lives. The bigger challenge is preparing for the next disaster — not simply rebuilding after the last one.</p><p><strong>Go deeper: </strong><a href="https://www.axios.com/local/san-antonio/2026/07/16/texas-hill-country-flooding-sirens-camps-safe" target="_blank">Sirens put to work as Texas Hill Country again slammed with floods</a></p>
<p>A series of dangerous <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/07/03/wildfire-weather-firework-bans-july-4-weekend" target="_self">heat waves</a> this summer — including one that has left 17 states under an emergency federal <a href="https://www.energy.gov/documents/doe-order-no-202-26-37" target="_blank">order</a> — are putting the electric grid under an intense real-world stress test.</p><p><strong>Why it matters:</strong> Successive <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/07/06/us-heat-wave-death-toll-july-2026" target="_blank">summer heat waves</a> are forcing utilities to rethink how they prepare the <a href="https://www.axios.com/energy-climate" target="_blank">grid</a> for longer and more frequent periods of extreme stress.</p><hr /><ul><li>They're raising questions about whether the electric grid can keep pace with surging demand from both <a href="https://www.axios.com/energy-climate/climate-change" target="_blank">climate</a> change and the AI-driven electricity boom.</li></ul><p><strong>State of play: </strong>Heat waves create a double challenge by increasing electricity demand for air-conditioning while reducing the efficiency of some power plants.</p><p><strong>Zoom in: </strong>Texas has become one of the nation's biggest proving grounds for grid modernization since the deadly <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/01/20/texas-power-grid-ercot-winter-freeze" target="_blank">2021 winter storm</a> exposed major weaknesses.</p><ul><li>The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates most of the state's grid, has since handled <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2026/06/12/texas-power-grid-summer-demand-ercot-forecast" target="_blank">record seasonal demand</a> with the help of rapid battery expansion, mandatory weatherization, improved forecasting and expanded demand response.</li><li>This month, the Public Utility Commission of Texas <a href="https://www.adminmonitor.com/tx/puct/open_meeting/20260709/" target="_blank">approved</a> standards requiring large <a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/02/23/battery-storage-utilities-data-centers" target="_blank">data centers</a> to disconnect in a controlled way during <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-Y9Bil6myA" target="_blank">grid</a> disturbances to help protect grid stability.</li></ul><p><strong>Yes, but: </strong><a href="https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2026/06/12/texas-power-grid-summer-demand-ercot-forecast" target="_blank">ERCOT</a> told state lawmakers that statewide electric demand will reach about 175,000 megawatts by 2032 — almost double the record number that was set this month.</p><p><strong>Between the lines:</strong> "Texas has been enormously proactive" in building transmission and adding <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/dallas/2024/04/04/texas-wind-solar-renewable-energy-production" target="_blank">solar, wind</a> and batteries, retired UC Berkeley electrical engineering professor Sascha von Meier tells Axios.</p><ul><li>But rapid growth in electricity demand from <a href="https://www.axios.com/technology/automation-and-ai" target="_blank">AI</a> data centers is creating a new challenge, she says.</li><li>Aidan Tuohy of the Electric Power Research Institute, a nonprofit energy research and development organization, says utilities are shifting from planning for a single peak hour to ensuring they have enough resources to remain reliable throughout prolonged periods of extreme heat.</li><li>"There isn't one specific resource that's coming up and saving the day or anything like that," says Tuohy, EPRI's director of research and development. "It's a mix, and that diversity is actually a big part of the equation."</li></ul><p><strong>Zoom out: </strong>A growing number of U.S. utilities are linking home batteries, solar panels and <a href="https://www.axios.com/energy-climate/electric-vehicles" target="_blank">EV</a> chargers through software to <a href="https://www.axios.com/pro/climate-deals/2024/04/11/vpp-market-potential" target="_blank">virtual power plants</a> that can supply electricity or reduce demand during periods of grid stress.</p><ul><li>"In California, we've had very positive experiences with battery storage and the way that it has performed during extreme peak demand days," von Meier says.</li><li>She points to a California Independent System Operator <a href="https://www.caiso.com/documents/2022-special-report-on-battery-storage-jul-7-2023.pdf" target="_blank">study</a> that called batteries "invaluable for reliability" after helping the state avoid rotating outages during a record 2022 heat wave.</li></ul><p><strong>Tuohy says utilities</strong> are increasingly looking at whether large <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/10/30/ai-data-centers-grid-power-demand" target="_blank">data centers</a> can become flexible grid resources rather than simply new sources of demand.</p><ul><li>Early results from an EPRI demonstration in Arizona showed a participating AI data center <a href="https://introl.com/blog/data-centers-grid-stabilizers-flexible-power-nvidia-epri-2026" target="_blank">reduced</a> electricity use by 25% over three hours during a simulated peak-demand event.</li></ul><p><strong>What we're watching: </strong>Von Meier expects that five years from now, electric grids will become more agile and flexible, out of necessity.</p><ul><li>"We may find it no longer realistic to accommodate unlimited demand at uniform reliability across entire interconnections at a reasonable price," she says.</li><li>"Instead, we will value efficiency, flexible backup options, including storage, self-generation and microgrids, and more active management of electric demand. All the key technologies exist today."</li></ul><p><strong>The bottom line: </strong>Reliability "is going to be won or lost," Tuohy says. "It's not the individual components. It's how they all work together."</p><p><strong>Go deeper: </strong><a href="https://www.axios.com/2026/06/13/ai-power-electricity-data-centers-who-pays" target="_blank">The power decisions that could shape the next century</a></p>
The Pacific Northwest is facing its worst fire season in more than 30 years. Scientists say drought, extreme heat and climate change are making wildfire seasons longer, more frequent and more destructive across the western United States.</p> <p>“The homes, the communities, they’re just not simply prepared for fire,” says Paul Hessburg, former senior research ecologist at the U.S. Forest Service and professor of fire and landscape ecology at the University of Washington. Hessburg walks us through the history of the region, from the controlled fires practiced by Indigenous peoples before European settlement to present-day ecologically unsound factors including “accidental ignitions, dense forests, the wrong kinds of fuels on the ground [and] rapidly changing climate.”
France and Spain are battling catastrophic wildfires that have forced more than 350,000 people to evacuate their homes. The fires began in the southwest of France on Wednesday before spreading to Spain, where they have consumed more than 120,000 acres in what is now the most destructive fire in Spain’s recent history. Meanwhile, a new heat wave is expected to hit Europe this week, with temperatures soaring above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).</p> <p>Professor Ángel Luis Lara, who fled his home west of Madrid, says he considers his family “very lucky” because they managed to escape to safety. He says the wildfires are not just about extreme weather, but also “decades of neoliberal policies” that have diminished public services and the ability to respond to natural disasters.</p> <p>We also speak with journalist John Vaillant, author of <em>Fire Weather</em>, who says the climate crisis has created conditions that lead to destructive “megafires” like those in Europe, North America and beyond. “These conditions have been slowly building and worsening for decades, basically vindicating, unfortunately, the warnings of climate scientists and firefighters,” says Vaillant.
<p>While many leaders compare the wildfire crisis to the second world war, governments fail to adopt the real lessons of pre-emptive wartime action</p><p></p><p>As France and Spain <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/27/france-and-spain-race-to-contain-huge-wildfires-before-fresh-heatwave-begins">battle historic wildfires</a>, comparisons to the second world war abound. “One of the continent’s biggest evacuation efforts since World War II,” <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/historic-wildfires-in-france-and-spain-have-forced-hundreds-of-thousands-of-people-to-evacuate-heres-what-to-know">reports the Associated Press</a>. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has called the wildfires his country’s “<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe/2026/07/27/french-wildfires-present-most-difficult-situation-since-ww2/">most difficult situation since the second world war</a>”.</p><p>The images crossing all our screens certainly feel war-like – emergency aircraft and black smoke fill the skies, frantic civilians seeking shelter, historic towns lying in ruins, charred forests and burned-out vehicles, exhausted and sweat-soaked emergency responders.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/06/wildfires-europe-world-war-two">Continue reading...</a>