I’m thinking of focusing my poster on something quite specific: how rural abandonment in Spain is actually driving wildfire risk, and what that means for climate futures. Instead of looking at fires as just a result of higher temperatures, this idea looks at how social changes (like people leaving rural areas) are reshaping the landscape.
When farms and grazing practices disappear, vegetation starts to grow uncontrolled. Over time, this creates a continuous layer of fuel, making it much easier for fires to spread and become more intense. There’s a lot of research that connects land-use change, demographic data, and fire records to show this pattern, so it’s not just a theory, it’s something we can actually measure and map.
Even though I want to focus on a very local dynamic, this is not just a Spanish issue. Similar patterns can be found in many regions where landscapes are being abandoned or transformed. It raises a broader question: is the higher intensity and amount of wildfires really only driven by rising temperatures, or do societal changes also play a key role in shaping how, where, and why fires occur?
Thinking about climate futures from this perspective opens up a more complex picture, where environmental and human processes are constantly interacting rather than acting separately.