Yale Environment 360: “Emissions from the world’s 88 largest fossil fuel firms and cement makers are responsible for 37 percent of the forest burned in the western U.S. and Canada since 1986, according to a new study. “Over the last several decades, human-caused climate change has turned routine Western wildfires into exceptionally destructive events,” Kristina Dahl, a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “Our study offers scientifically backed answers to questions of who bears the responsibility for this gut-wrenching destruction.” Heat-trapping emissions are driving up temperatures globally, yielding warmer, drier weather in the Mountain West. More arid conditions are giving rise to larger, more intense wildfires that burn at higher elevation and throughout more of the year. Companies such as ExxonMobil, BP, and Shell are fueling warming through the mining, drilling, refining, and burning of fossil fuels. Altogether, the biggest 88 fossil fuel and cement firms are responsible for roughly half the warming seen since the turn of the 20th century, around 0.9 degrees F (0.5 degrees C)…”