Locus Focus on 07/29/13

WILDFIRES, EXTREME DROUGHT AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Fire season is now upon us and across much of the western United States wild fires are burning out of control. Why are droughts becoming more extreme and how do they contribute to the severity of wild fires? On this episode of Locus Focus, as smoke rises from grassland fires in Central Washington, we talk with Dominik Kulakowski, a specialist in wildfires and disturbance ecology, about how climate change is helping to shape a new and more extreme fire regimes across the world.

Dominik Kulakowski, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Geography at Clark University. He recently addressed the House of Representatives about climate change concerns. In 2012, he co-authored several papers about wild fires, bark beetle outbreaks, and changing climate conditions in the West.