UnDisciplined: Are wildfires increasing under climate change?

By Matthew LaPlante

Published August 29, 2024 at 3:23 PM MDT

a wildfire burins along a mountain range at night with orange smoke, and the lights of human buildings and streets in the foreground — Wildfires are burning higher into the mountains in the last 40 years.

The western United States is getting hotter, windier, and drier. And that means more fire risk. It also means that when a fire does occur, it is likely to be much more dangerous and destructive.

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Matthew LaPlante

Matthew LaPlante has reported on ritual infanticide in Northern Africa, insurgent warfare in the Middle East, the legacy of genocide in Southeast Asia, and gang violence in Central America. But a few years back, something occurred to him: Maybe the news doesn't have to be so brutally depressing all the time. These days, he balances his continuing work on more heartbreaking subjects with his work on UnDisciplined — Utah Public Radio's weekly program on science and discovery.

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