Climate change is rendering whole landscapes more flammable due to a pernicious cycle.With increasing temperature trees become water stressed which slows their growth - less photosynthesis - leaf shedding and even tree death causes more fuel on forest floor.Tree canopy is less dense retaining less moisture - lower relate humidity increases fire intensity. There is also evidence that because the carbon cycle is on steroids with ever increasing CO2 the content of plants is changing whereby the carbohydrate content increases at the expense of protein rendering a higher calorific value and therefore flammability. Is it any wonder that globally wildfires are increasing both in frequency and intensity.Whether arboreal European forests or rain-forests in Qld,Tas and the Amazon,forests once considered almost fireproof are now burning with alarming severity. Of coarse all this burning is causing a nasty positive feedback loop by liberating a gross amount of CO2 emissions and making the task of avoiding catastrophic climate change more difficult even as we attempt to curb our emissions in other sectors.
