COP27
CALIFORNIA WILDFIRES
The “Dixie Fire” started in Butte County on 13 July 2021 and burned 390,000 hectares before being contained on 25 October. It was the largest single wildfi re in California’s history and damaged or destroyed several small towns.
It has been an alarming time for climate scientists. One by one, the grim scenarios they had outlined for the near future have been overtaken by events: extreme storms, droughts, floods and ice-sheet collapses whose sudden appearances have outstripped researchers’ worst predictions. Catastrophic climate change is happening more rapidly and with greater intensity than their grimmest warnings, it transpires.
Examples include this summer’s record high temperature of 40.3C in the UK, a massive jump of 1.6C on the previous hottest day; torrential rains that triggered
