Maarten van Aalst
Director of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, and an IPCC Coordinating Lead Author who also serves on the leadership group of the UN climate resilience initiative, known as A2R
Wildfires anywhere are always the result of a cluster of causes, but man-made climate change played at least some role in the terrible California fires this month, the state’s deadliest. Climate change is no longer seen as a future threat: the reality is hitting us today.
It’s difficult to pinpoint just when attitudes began to change. After Hurricane Harvey? Or scorching heat in Europe? It’s also difficult to avoid the conclusion that this new sense of urgency may have something to do with impacts that are being felt – and given saturation media coverage – in the developed world.
Read more on IRIN.