Heatmap: “Why the South Is America’s Newest Tinderbox”
Dave Wear is the subject of this Q&A about the recent wildfire outbreak in the Carolinas and his research on Southeastern climate risk.
In what is perhaps a grim premonition of what is to come, several major fires are burning across the Southeast now... The region is also battling hundreds of smaller brush fires, the smoke from which David Wear — the land use, forestry, and agriculture program director at Resources for the Future — could see out his Raleigh-area window.
Wear is also the co-author of a study by RFF and the U.S. Forest Service that came out in late 2024 and singled out the Southeast as facing a “particularly worrisome” rise in wildfire risk over the next half-century. I spoke with him this week to learn more about why the Carolinas are burning and what the future of fire looks like for the region.
