Gusts primed the Maui landscape to burn, then drove an out-of-control blaze. It’s a worst-case scenario that’s growing increasingly common around the world.
Once thought to be basically immortal, sequoias are now dying in droves as fires burn bigger, hotter, and longer than any other point in human history. Protecting them is possible, but managing western woods is a Pandora’s box of tough choices.
Worsening wildfires in recent years have led officials to embrace planned fires to thin forests before disaster strikes. But the warming world is making it tougher to do safely.
Peat fires smolder in the ground for months, suddenly emerging as surface wildfires. New simulations reveal their strange life, death, and reanimation.
