It’s impossible to ignore the impact of climate change as early-season fires rage in western Canada right now. And scientists are getting better and better at calculating the likelihood of a specific event happening because of climate change—such as a drought or heat wave that can exacerbate fire conditions. Now, scientists are also able to pin-point just how responsible the top polluters are for the impact of these wildfires.

According to a new study published May 16 in Environmental Research Letters, 37% of the total area of forest burned in the western U.S. and Canada since 1986 can be linked to the emissions released by the world’s 88 biggest fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers.

The researchers determined this by looking at the role these companies’ pollution played in creating an ever-hotter world that dries-out vegetation to create tinder-box forest conditions. In the past several decades, everything about wildfires has increased: the amount of land burned, the severity of the burn, the number of large fires, the length of the fire season, and the elevation […]