Fire tornadoes

I remember when the kids asked me what was the worst possible weather and, after some hesitation, I came up with “fire tornado”, reassuring them that terrifying as fire whirls are, they are also extremely rare. New research however suggests that, as climate change is making large fires more probable overall, the probability of fire tornadoes is also likely to increase in the future.

Disconnected from Twitter, I am able to stay away from most academic fire tornadoes but today, a new intense debate over the ethics of flying to academic conferences started on the Global Environmental Politics Editors-list and it took all my will power to not get drawn in. After all, I have already concluded that it is better to engage with these topics only indirectly and to avoid bringing more fuel to the fire. Still, it is incredibly frustrating to see how the bigger perspective is consistently ignored and how at odds these anti-flying academics are with broader global ambitions.