Climate Change and Budget Cuts Fueled South American Blazes

Human-induced climate change, along with land-use shifts and budget cuts, likely worsened recent wildfires in Argentina and Chile that are threatening some of the world’s oldest trees, an analysis has found.

These regions are now receiving 20% to 25% less rainfall due to climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, according to a report by World Weather Attribution, also known as WWA, a scientific group that examines extreme weather events days after they occur.

“We estimate that similarly extreme fire weather conditions are now nearly three times as likely due to the 1.3C of human-caused warming,” said Clair Barnes, a researcher at the Centre for Environmental Policy of Imperial College London. “The drying trend is well captured by the climate models.”

The fires, which began in early January, devastated large swaths of south-central Chile, destroying about 2,300 homes and killing 21 people, according to a United Nations report. In Argentina’s Patagonia, where the blazes continue out of control, fires have burned parts of Los Alerces National Park, home to the Alerce,the second-longest living tree species in the world, reaching more than 3,600 years.

“Climate change is leading to extreme and persistent temperatures well above average”, said co-author Juan Antonio Rivera, a researcher at the Argentine Institute of Nivology, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences. “At some weather stations near Patagonia, which were installed 70 years ago, we observed unprecedented warm spells.”

Besides the drier and hotter weather, pine tree plantations increased wildfire risk in both countries, the WWA analysis concluded. These plantations are highly flammable because of their uniform fuel structure and density. In 2024, when blazes killed 138 people in Chile’s Viña del Mar, the fires reached neighborhoods after spreading through tree plantations.

Inthe Argentine Patagonia, wildfire hotspots remain active inside Los Alerces National Park. Environmental groups and WWA point to budget cuts under President Javier Milei, who denies the existence of human-induced climate change.

The budget of the National Fire Management Service was reduced by 69% this year, compared with 2023, and by 54%, compared with 2025, according to an analysis by nonprofit Environment and Natural Resources Foundation, also known as Farn.

In a statement, Argentina’s National Parks Administration said wildfires have affected about 16,000 hectares (39,500 acres) of Los Alerces National Park, an area slightly larger than San Francisco. It added that more than 200 federal personnel are involved in the response, working in coordination with Chubut province, which has deployed 278 public servants.

Photograph: A firefighter works to extinguish a forest fire burning in the mountains of the rural area of Epuyen, in the Patagonian region of Chubut province, Argentina, on Feb. 2, 2025. Photo credit: Tomas Cuesta/AFP/Getty Images

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