France's unprecedented wildfires: Convergence of climate change and historical landscape engineering

France 24 spoke with Dr. Melissa Sterry, founding director of Panarchic Codex, about why the country's wildfires have become so severe. She argues it's not one cause but a convergence: climate change driving heat and drought, nineteenth century forestry choices that left behind highly combustible plantations, and expanding human activity creating more chances for fires to ignite. Once those factors line up, she says, fires can turn into self-sustaining systems that generate their own weather. Dr. Sterry credits France's emergency responders but argues firefighting alone won't fix the underlying problem — the real fix, she says, is redesigning the landscape itself before fires ever start.

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