As the World Burns

If it seems as though the world’s on fire, that’s because it is. Wildfires are starting earlier in the dry season and burning for longer. As of October 2017, European Union countries had reported more than 1,600 fires, which burned more than 2 million acres. In the United States, according to the Department of the Interior, there were 71,499 wildfires in 2017, which were responsible for burning 10 million acres of land and putting 4.5 million homes at risk, 2 million in California alone. Every year more than 330,000 people die from the aftereffects of wildfires. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts…