Newsom’s Climate False Alarms

Global warming isn’t behind California’s wildfires, and fires around the world are declining

By Bjorn Lomborg. Excerpts:

"Age-adjusted heat-related death risk in California has risen modestly in recent decades—enough to account for 90 additional annual deaths"

"Warming has helped reduce age-adjusted cold-related deaths by more than 5,000 a year"

"In the early 2000s, about 3% of the world’s land burned annually—in total acreage, an area about twice Mexico’s size. The trend since has been downward: 2022 hit a record low of 2.169%, and 2025 nearly matched it at 2.198%, the second-lowest."

"global warming isn’t the main driver of fires in North America. Poor planning puts more houses in extreme fire-risk zones. California’s surge in wildfires stems overwhelmingly from poor forest management: decades of fire suppression that built up fuels, with almost no prescribed burns" 

"nearly 20% of the state needs controlled burns to reduce risk, yet only 0.1% to 0.3% receives them annually."

"deaths from fire-related air pollution declined between 2000 and 2019, even as the global population increased over 26%"

"In the early 1900s, nearly 4% of global land burned yearly. Last year, only 2.2% did."

"2024 Nature paper that declared extreme fire events doubled globally from 2003 to 2023. But a subsequent Nature review demolished that claim"

"even if the world’s wealthiest nations made major emissions reductions . . . It would avert less than 0.2 degree Fahrenheit of warming at significant cost"