Bordeaux and Madrid are threatened by flames. In Sicily, arsonists tied burning rags to the tails of cats to spread fires. Here in Britain the Cairngorms and Peak District national parks are ablaze. It’s the climate Armageddon, say the greens. If only we had built more wind farms and eaten fewer cows this would not be happening.

Hot, dry spells undoubtedly make fires more likely, but awkwardly for those blaming climate change, wildfires are getting less frequent worldwide, not more, as the globe warms. The acreage burned has decreased steadily since 2000, according to Nasa’s satellites, and is thought to have almost halved in a century. The great fires of 1871 in Wisconsin and Michigan burned more than a million hectares long before anybody drove a car, before even Joseph Swan’s first light bulb, when the world was cooler.

It has been known for many decades that the longer you go without a fire, the worse the fires will be

It has been known for many decades that the longer you go without a fire, the worse the fires will be

It is not just the trend that is surprising. Hard to believe, but this year is an unusually quiet year for wildfire: so quiet it is breaking records for lack of fires by this date, even in Europe. If you don’t believe me, check the figures produced by the Global Wildfire Information System: as of last week, the world had seen 106 million hectares burn this year, the lowest at this date since these records began in 2012. In Europe, just 3.6 million hectares have burned – less than half the average for this date. That’s cold comfort to people driven from their homes in France, but it is nonetheless a fact.

The real issue is that climate change is a handy excuse for politicians who have failed to take precautionary measures to prevent wildfires. They can just shrug: it’s global warming, innit? It has been known for many decades that in fire-prone habitats, the longer you go without a fire, the worse the fires will be. So preventing the build-up of tinder by controlled burns is the most important factor.

Cambridge is coming out very badly from the Jason Arday affair

What students still get........

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