Check Your Facts, Reuters, Mediterranean Wildfires Aren’t Unusual Historically, No Reason to Blame Climate Change
By
H. Sterling Burnett
July 25, 2025
A recent story posted by Reuters blames recent wildfire numbers and severity that have erupted across Mediterranean Europe on climate change. Data and history debunk such claims. Satellite data from Europe and the United States show wildfire is in decline globally, including across Europe, and research and reports show wildfires have been common across the arid Mediterranean region throughout history.
In the Reuters story, “How climate change fuels wildfires in Europe,” writer Kate Abnett writes, “[w]ildfires have burnt 227,000 hectares of land since the beginning of the year – more than double the average for this time of year over the past two decades,” noting that while this years acreage lost to wildfires is far above the recent average (consistent records have only been kept since 2002), it is far below the recent record.
Abnett uncritically blames climate change for causing the Southern Europe’s fires, writing:
Scientists say the Mediterranean region’s hotter, drier summers put it at high risk of wildfires. …
Climate change exacerbates this risk, by creating hotter and drier background conditions. In the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, that has contributed to the fire season starting earlier in recent years, breaking records for the intensity of fires, and burning more land.
Greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning coal, oil and gas, have heated the planet by about 1.3 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times. Europe has warmed at twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
https://climaterealism.com/2025/07/check-your-facts-reuters-mediterranean-wildfires-arent-unusual-historically-no-reason-to-blame-climate-change/
