Dr. Crystal A. Kolden

Email me at ckolden@ucmerced.edu

It doesn't just *feel* like wildfires are becoming more catastrophic, they actually are. Led by @calxcunningham.bsky.social at Univ of Tasmania, this is a paper we started nearly 10 years ago, now in @science.org. Press release from @ucmerced.bsky.social here: news.ucmerced.edu/news/2025/wi...

Climate-linked escalation of societally disastrous wildfires Climate change and land mismanagement are creating increasingly fire-prone built and natural environments. However, despite worsening fire seasons, evidence is lacking globally for trends in socially ...

Published today: our new paper showing a 44-year trend of increasing global wildfire disasters (fatalities and economic losses) due to climate change-induced extreme weather. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Trump is trying to kill solar power—here's how to fight back Rooftop solar is a clean power miracle. Why are we killing it with red tape?

We have a 5.9kW solar system for 2,700 sq ft house in HOT 🥵 Fresno, CA. We charge a plug-in hybrid daily.

Current house: $24/yr for electricity (PG&E)
Old house (no solar): >$6,000/yr

Our $20K system is paid for in ~3 yrs. Solar is a scientific miracle.

www.motherjones.com/environment/...

Climate Change Is Making Fire Weather Worse for World’s Forests

It's 2025, and it's still climate change driving major forest loss through wildfires. With insights from @climate-guy.bsky.social and @calxcunningham.bsky.social

@ucmerced.bsky.social @utas.edu.au

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/c...

Most of the homes within the fire footprint burned, so it's logical that most of the homes for sale would be outside the footprint. We see this consistently across fire disasters: people sell and leave. They want to move on with their lives. We're prepping a final report on this right now for HUD.

I've been calling myself a pyrogeographer for over two decades, and now we have a journal just for us, led by the fantastic @mattwjones.bsky.social (full disclosure: I sit on the editorial board). We warmly invite you to submit to #Pyrogeography today!
www.sciencedirect.com/journal/jour...

Climate change has increased the odds of extreme regional forest fire years globally Nature Communications - The authors show that extreme fire years in global forests align with rare fire weather extremes. Climate change has made such extremes 88-152% more probable. These findings...

Happy to share our new paper: we show that human-caused climate change is raising the odds of extreme climate-driven fire years across forested regions of the globe
@climate-guy.bsky.social @pyrogeog.bsky.social
rdcu.be/evJkX
#ClimateChange #Wildfires

Also, if you're not following @mattwjones.bsky.social please give him a follow.

He's the Editor-In-Chief of the new journal Pyrogeography!

More amazing teamwork led by the fantastic @mattwjones.bsky.social to develop a global database of prescribed fire.

Praying to the Flying Spaghetti Monster over here...

gwern.net/doc/history/...

My theory: some DOGE minion Googled "Hatch Act" and saw the 1939 law preventing political actions by govt employees and said "Let's cut it!"

Not realizing, of course, that the 1887 Hatch Act funds agricultural research at Land Grant schools that directly benefits farmers.🙄

Spent a delightful week in Vienna last month for EGU. What a model for people (not car)-oriented living!
1) Huge car-free areas in the historic city center
2) Amazing public transit system (my 10-yr olds LOVED the subway)
3) Phenomenal bike paths

Rating: 14/10 - I would live there!
#waroncars

Wildfires are coming... for New Jersey? Climate change is expanding the list of areas at risk for the worst wildfires.

feels like a good day to re-up this reporting. “Every single state in the US where we have vegetation, and particularly where we have vegetation intermixing with communities, we have the potential for extreme fire disasters,” @pyrogeog.bsky.social www.vox.com/climate/2386...

Thanks for taking pictures, Asmeret

TOMORROW! There's still time to register:
1pm - Introductions and talk by John Mills of @watchduty.org
2pm - A look ahead at the 2025 Fire Season in CA with @climate-guy.bsky.social
2:15pm - Mitigating smoke with Dr. Sandie Ha
2:30pm - Q&A with all speakers

MEDIA is welcome.
Please join us!

Climate change continued to have unpredictable impacts on wildfire in 2024. Unexpected shifts, like the Americas producing 40% of C emissions (normally it's <25%), and anomalous events, like the fatal Feb '24 Chile fire or the Pantanal wetlands burning, occur more often.

Wildfires in 2024 - Nature Reviews Earth & Environment Wildfire burned area was 367 Mha in 2024, ranked 17th since 2001. An estimated 1,965 Tg C was released from these fires, 41% of which came from the Americas, far exceeding their usual 25% contribution...

Kolden et al. document 2024 wildfires, finding:

- 367 Mha burned
- Burned area decreased 5.4% from 2023
- Fires released an estimate 1965 Tg C

www.nature.com/articles/s43... (rdcu.be/ehnTP)

@pyrogeog.bsky.social @climate-guy.bsky.social @mattwjones.bsky.social @ueaenv.bsky.social

[6/n]

Flyer header that shows a photo of John Mills and states the date and time as April 17, 2025 from 1-3 pm for the 2025 Wildfire outlook.

QR code to register for the zoom seminar and get full schedule.

On 4/17 @ucmerced.bsky.social Fire Resilience Center will host John Mills, CEO and co-founder of @watchduty.org AND have discussion with @climate-guy.bsky.social and Dr. Sandie Ha on:
1) The upcoming fire season in CA
2) How you can prepare, esp. for smoke

We're streaming it online - join us!

This is your regular reminder that ALL buildings in California must build to seismic codes, but only those in CALFIRE's designated high hazard areas must build to WUI fire codes.

Why the discrepancy? Who the hell knows...but it means the cycle of rebuild and burn again will continue.

Ed Abbey words to live by:

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”

“Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others.”

“Anarchism is democracy taken seriously.”

Worried about wildfires this year? You should be. Preparedness is the absolutely most effective way to mitigate disasters, and the firing of thousands of employees and hiring freeze means that there is almost no one to prepare. WHEN wildfires start (not if), suppression will be a mess.

"Training is preparation for the known; education is preparation for the unknown."

Just remember that we train AI, but we educate humans.

Out today in @globalchangebio.bsky.social is our (brief!) rapid-response piece on the broader context surrounding the January 2025 Southern California wildfires & relevance of wet-to-dry hydroclimate whiplash to fire both locally and globally on a warming Earth. [1/8] onlinelibrary.wiley....

Ironically called ICYMI

There is a huge need for basic social support: driver (many people lose cars/transit), personal shopper, tech support (online forms for older people), babysitter (so parents can work/deal with crises), etc. Slightly more training: Disaster Case Manager (an advocate for survivors).

Wanted to reshare the webinar event associated with this white paper release.

You can watch the event here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkAP...

All of the messages discussed by me and the panelists require greater focus after what we have just experienced.

🔥 Fire peeps... @wildland-zko.bsky.social joined us. Give him a follow.

I am shocked* that the Trillion Trees guy ends up being a problem dude. They won't comment, but anyone with that kind of funding record doesn't get let go without doing something VERY, VERY BAD.

*Note: I am not shocked at all