Wildfires have been devastating Greece, the US, Australia and Canada. Indeed, news of wildfires has been reported to us for a long time. Each new one seems to eclipse the last. The scenes of tourists and residents being rescued from the Island of Evia in Greece were apocalyptic. A ship sailing away while all around them the land is ablaze.

Athens, surrounded by burning suburban forests, was under siege. Ash from the burning wood fell like snow and the acrid smoke and heat made the air thick and choking. Although the Greek fire service is battling as hard as it can, the extreme heat Greece is experiencing means that even though some fires appear to have been extinguished, embers will rekindle and the fire restarts.

Climate change is unquestionably a major factor in the occurrence and number of wildfires. Recorded temperatures in and around Athens hit 47C and a drone, monitoring temperatures within the city recorded an incredible 55C surface temperature on the streets last week.

Floods destroy, but fire consumes. On the other side of the world two settlements in Canada have been razed to the ground. The village of Lytton, 162 miles north east of Vancouver, British Columbia, had been hard hit by record breaking temperatures of up to 49C in July. Then, just as the temperatures eased, wildfires broke out and the winds increased causing the fire to move so fast that warnings and orders to evacuate were ineffective. They came late in the day and many residents had already gathered what they could to leave. In a matter of hours, the village was destroyed.

Last week the resort of Monte Lake, 100 miles east of Lytton, a village that’s a popular tourist venue was destroyed by another wildfire. This one had been raging in an area called White Rock Lake and had jumped a major highway just before it spread to the village resort. Burnt-out cars, buildings consumed and the odd ghostly structure is all that remains. So far, over 2,240 square miles of British Columbia has been devastated by wildfires. But how do these fires start and what can we do to better protect ourselves? Wildfires are not a direct result of human industrial activity as such. Climate change, driven by human industrialisation, carbon dioxide production and deforestation are an indirect, but important factor in how wildfires start and spread. But in the fossil record we see evidence of the impact of wildfires on large expanses of the pre-human landscape.

One sure sign that fire has been present is the occurrence of charcoal or carbon soot in the layers of sedimentary rocks and soils. Archaeologists can identify fire pits in human settlements when they see distinct layers of carbon and charcoal, but so too can geologists, who look much further back in time, see the same sort of evidence, though not in as contained a way.

One of the earliest wildfires was uncovered in rocks dated over 360 million years old. These would change the ecology of an area and allow for the regeneration of landscapes by new and different plants and animals. In some ways a wildfire is both a destroyer but also an opportunity for new species to take over a landscape.

Wildfires can start naturally. Humans, however, are the most likely cause of wildfires in modern times. They are most often started through carelessness eg leaving campfires/disposable barbecues to burn out rather than properly extinguishing them. Careless disposal of cigarette butts and deliberate acts of arson are far too frequent. Some farming methods involve burning areas to rid them of pests and infection. In some countries there is a farming method called slash and burn where areas of forest are deliberately cut and burned to provide new land for crop or herd farming.

It’s estimated that only ten to 15 per cent of wildfires happen through natural causes. The most likely is lightning strikes on dry, parched land which sets fire to tinder dry vegetation. Multiple strikes can set multiple fires. Sparks from everyday life can also set off a fire, such as sparks from train wheels or a downed power line sparking as it falls to ground.

How we manage our environment, where we plant trees, the type we plant and regular maintenance of our forests can reduce the chances of wildfires. We need to tackle climate change as more frequent droughts and higher temperatures drive the intensity and frequency of wildfires. These are unprecedented times and if world leaders do not see this as a huge wake-up call to do something, not in ten, 20 or 30 years but now, we can only expect more catastrophic floods, apocalyptic wildfires, and record heatwaves.