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Do people equate the global wild fires with global warming? Or is it still just weather?

167 replies

Greedybilly · 24/07/2026 22:28

What are your thoughts?
I'm finding the whole thing bloody terrifying and feel like we're all just sleep walking into a bit of a nightmare.

OP posts:
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PetiteParakeet · Yesterday 12:55

It’s not about how the fires start! It’s about how difficult they are to control. There aren’t more dickheads and idiots around nowadays, that’s not what’s changed. The climate has changed, with increased heat and drought in summer so it all goes up like a tinderbox.
If the wildfires aren’t enough evidence, look at the state of Europe’s rivers. Low water levels in the Rhine and other rivers are causing real problems for shipping, and concerns about drinking water.
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-change/rhine-danube-elbe-loire-some-of-europes-biggest-rivers-are-going-dry-this-summer

Rhine, Danube, Elbe, Loire. Some of Europe’s biggest rivers are going dry this summer

Rhine, Danube, Elbe, Loire. Some of Europe’s biggest rivers are going dry this summer

Rivers across the European continent, including some of its most important waterways, are drying up as an unrelenting heatwave refuses to go away.The Danube, Rh

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-change/rhine-danube-elbe-loire-some-of-europes-biggest-rivers-are-going-dry-this-summer

JesseDavisGonnaHangOnInThereNSoul · Yesterday 13:11

Defoncforthis · Yesterday 12:45

No it's cats I've googled it

Bloody hell that's awful.

FTMinLondon · Yesterday 13:18

One thing we can do to help change things at a systemic level is switch bank, pension fund and/or insurer to a provider that doesn’t finance fossil fuel expansion. Barclays is particularly bad.

NullaEffugium · Yesterday 13:31

NotMeAtAll · Yesterday 12:52

I don't understand why some people think the UK's pollution figure absolves them of responsibility. The individual's contribution doesn't depend on the size of the country they come from. If you live alone on an island, your car is causing the same damage as it would in China or the US.

It’s likely the per capita pollution figure they are pointing to.
The UK is pretty good. Obviously not absolved of historic pollution, but many feel like the UK (and the EU) has its shit together compared to the US and other countries.

Do people equate the global wild fires with global warming? Or is it still just weather?
EvangelicalAboutButteredToast · Yesterday 13:32

My kids are just accepting that Armageddon is around the corner. If it isn’t coming from AI taking the jobs in the next three years, it’s coming from climate change. It’s fucking depressing and I’m not surprised that people are choosing not to have kids.

Mojuu · Yesterday 13:36

Do you not drive a petrol/diesel car or heat home with gas boiler? We need energy!

LagerLady · Yesterday 13:52

Looks pretty grim for the youngsters, Global Warming, AI Mass Immigration, Student Debt, Unemployment, National Debt..

LagerLady · Yesterday 13:55

Sorry I missed housing crisis

ChequerToRed · Yesterday 14:04

All this is absolutely horrendous, and the long term implications are dreadful.
Climate change is screwing up global sea temperatures which are effecting the jet stream, that’s why Europe now seems stuck in a summer cycle of high pressure sitting over us for months and winter Atlantic lows that bring strong, often destructive, winds and excessive rain. Scotland, France, Spain and Italy are seeing unprecedented wildfires, the ones near Madrid have been burning now for weeks and incinerated hundreds of square miles of land. I’ve been watching the smoke plumes on live satellite images, they’re huge.
There’s other effects, too. Increased sea temperatures are fuelling extreme lows causing bigger and more damaging hurricanes and typhoons, monsoon seasons are either not coming at all or are so heavy they’re causing massive flooding, destruction and loss of life.
We’re in very serious trouble.

MargaretThursday · Yesterday 14:09

EmeraldRoulette · 24/07/2026 22:59

Whatever you think about it, we've got a really big problem with people using disposable barbecues and not putting out cigarettes properly - or indeed just throwing them into tinder dry leaves!

Glass is the most common cause of heath fires round us. We get them not quite every year, but regularly enough.

It can be a discarded bottle or a dropped pair of glasses or anything like that when the weather's dry.

MasterBeth · Yesterday 14:09

ThePeppyOpalScroller · 24/07/2026 22:41

Well when there's little rain the vegetation dries out and dies. Then it's just tinder. So fires spread rapidly. No need to be terrified. When it rains a lot the ground gets waterlogged and whole cities can flood. When the wind blows a lot buildings can fall down. It's just weather. The summer of 76 was the same. So was the summer of 2003, so was this summer. Calm down. There's absolutely nothing anyone can do about the weather.

Any specific incident is 'just weather".

Climate change is the relentless upwards movement of global temperature, affecting the frequency and severity of specific incidents.

Anthropogenic climate change is the relentless upwards movement of global temperature caused by human activity.

There is a lot we can do about anthropogenic climate change.

frenchnoodle · Yesterday 14:12

MargaretThursday · Yesterday 14:09

Glass is the most common cause of heath fires round us. We get them not quite every year, but regularly enough.

It can be a discarded bottle or a dropped pair of glasses or anything like that when the weather's dry.

Mirrors and glass ornaments too, accidently magnifying the sun.

MasterBeth · Yesterday 14:13

Blackbird2409 · Yesterday 11:36

Well we used to travel to France every year as a child in 70’s and 80’s in peak summer and whilst it was very hot, I don’t remember ever worrying or my parents worrying about fires!

We were evacuated from our French campsite in the 80s because of forest fires.

HoppityBun · Yesterday 14:19

PetiteParakeet · Yesterday 12:55

It’s not about how the fires start! It’s about how difficult they are to control. There aren’t more dickheads and idiots around nowadays, that’s not what’s changed. The climate has changed, with increased heat and drought in summer so it all goes up like a tinderbox.
If the wildfires aren’t enough evidence, look at the state of Europe’s rivers. Low water levels in the Rhine and other rivers are causing real problems for shipping, and concerns about drinking water.
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/climate-change/rhine-danube-elbe-loire-some-of-europes-biggest-rivers-are-going-dry-this-summer

It’s been like that near me for months. I went for a walk in April and parts of the local river bed were dry. It just keep wanting it not to be true, but it is

Quine0nline · Yesterday 14:21

A number of people saw people starting fires in the US Californian fires of some years ago. The land burned, it was claimed by the government under eminent domain. I should add it was areas settled by poorer people who were burned out.

In Australia, laws banning scrub clearance meant that fires spread more rapidly and we're more destructive.

In the Highlands, grouse moors used to have managed burning for control.

In the Highland areas, there have been more forestation projects and trees planed for wood management - and profit.

Notice the lack of tree, shrub and weed clearance by road and railway sides. Lack of money? Creating green corridors? Also creating rapid burn ways.

backformoreofthesame · Yesterday 14:24

The highland moors being burnt for grouse shooting doesn’t manage the environment to prevent fires unless they burn huge swathes which really doesn’t help things - let’s burn everything or cinders so we don’t get a fire ?

NotMeAtAll · Yesterday 14:24

NullaEffugium · Yesterday 13:31

It’s likely the per capita pollution figure they are pointing to.
The UK is pretty good. Obviously not absolved of historic pollution, but many feel like the UK (and the EU) has its shit together compared to the US and other countries.

Yes Europe is good compared to some other parts of the world, but I often see it stated here that the UK only accounts for only 1% of emissions, as if it makes a difference where the CO2 is emitted.

Quine0nline · Yesterday 14:26

What am I doing to do "my bit"?

Not flying in my private jet to do concerts all over the world or to jet off to collect my trophy for "saving the planet".

Not buying other people's rubbish and dumping it instead of processing it as agreed.

Not having a space program when millions of my people are literally starving.

Not buying the cheapest and dirtiest whatever when there is a more efficient one out there.

Not producing that to ship over the world for air-headed influencers to flaunt.

Not dredging sand islands in the shape of palm.leavrs or in international waters as military bases or hedonistic pleasure domes.

I think I'm doing ok.

JesseDavisGonnaHangOnInThereNSoul · Yesterday 14:27

LagerLady · Yesterday 13:55

Sorry I missed housing crisis

Oh aren't you a joy..I'm teasing.
It's so bloody depressing all round.

Morepositivemum · Yesterday 14:37

Have served a fair few people who have commented on a front page local newspaper article calling bs. Saying if there was a climate crisis sure it would all be the US and China so we can’t do anything anyway.

And people asking why fires aren’t being covered? Because everyday people only want to know about their holiday destinations

cloudtreecarpet · Yesterday 14:40

Bunnyofhope · Yesterday 10:39

Rainfall has increased in the UK over the last 100 years. Rainfall has increased worldwide over the last 100 years. I'm not sure if it's relevant, but it's most certainly true.

Climate change is about more than summers getting hotter though, it's about weather patterns changing and more unusual weather phenomenon which we have seen over and over again - floods all over the world, excess rainfall etc etc.

If the ice caps are melting as they are then this all makes sense, it's not just about temperatures going up.

MasterBeth · Yesterday 14:48

cloudtreecarpet · Yesterday 14:40

Climate change is about more than summers getting hotter though, it's about weather patterns changing and more unusual weather phenomenon which we have seen over and over again - floods all over the world, excess rainfall etc etc.

If the ice caps are melting as they are then this all makes sense, it's not just about temperatures going up.

At a global level, it is indeed about the temperatures going up. And up. And up. And up. At a speed not experienced before while humans have been on the planet.

This manifests itself in different ways across the continents, seasons and ecosystems. More, more extreme weather: wet, cold, windy and hot.

Beer3000 · Yesterday 14:52

AGlessandahalf · Yesterday 14:00

https://www.moorlandassociation.org/post/controlled-burning-and-wildfire-risk-an-evidence-based-response-to-inaccurate-claims-from-scotland

interesting article about the practice of controlled burning and the fact it is now banned has contributed to the wildfires in Scotland being worse and longer

I was going to say this. Yes, climate change is causing this. But changes in the way we manage the land, often in reaction to climate change, also contributes.

There needs to be lessons learned from this year, and the knowledge of experienced land owners and managers needs to be taken on board alongside environmentalists, to reduce risks. There are cases where controlled burning might be necessary. It's a balance.

palorina · Yesterday 14:54

I think I'll go and live in a cave or something.

It's all too depressing and scary now, with little prospect of much change on the way, despite our individual efforts.

I am glad now I don't have children. Sorry if that upsets those who do, it must be so worrying thinking about their futures, in more ways than just climate change too.