Forests and Climate Change: a Combustible Combination

Forbes: Smokey Bear's advisories aside, wildfires are a normal part of forest ecology. Fire serves to clear out old trees and excess underbrush so younger trees can grow. You know, textbook "circle of life." But the cumulative list of manmade alterations to forests, to land, and to climate is rendering the benefits of forest fires all but moot in many places, as this Nature piece illustrates: Across the American west, the area burned each year has increased significantly over the past several decades...

URL: http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmcquaid/2012/09/20/forests-and-climate-change-a-combustible-combination/