Researchers in Alaska say climate change is shifting the way the state manages resources, including around wildfires. They predict a warmer climate will bring bigger and hotter fires and a higher cost of suppressing those fires. Wildfires have ravaged Southcentral and Southwestern Alaska in the 2019 fire season. As of Aug. 30, total acreage burned in Alaska accounted for 64 percent of all acreage burned in the U.S. The cost of fighting fires in Southcentral and Southwest Alaska is just over $51 million, and growing.
Researchers have made conservative estimates of the costs of wildfire response in Alaska's changing climate, ranging from $1.2 - $2.1 billion by 2100.