Readers' letters: Scotland must prepare for more wildfires
The conditions that fuel dangerous wildfires are becoming more common in Scotland, an academic writes
The wildfire on Arthur’s Seat on Sunday reminds us that Scotland is not immune to the rising risk of wildfires we often associate with southern Europe. Across the continent, wildfires are becoming bigger, more intense, and harder to fight. Just last week, flames near Ribaute in France burned an area larger than Paris in under four days, while blazes in Turkey and Italy forced the closure of key tourist destinations and transport routes.
Scientists know that climate change is making these events more likely. Rising temperatures, more frequent heatwaves, and long dry spells turn vegetation into tinder. In southern Europe, the fire season is now 50 days longer than it was in the 1980s, and is projected to last four months a year in parts of Spain and Turkey by 2050.
Here in Scotland, new research from the University of St Andrews using an AI framework developed by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and EFFIS data (European Fires data), shows a clear upward trend in wildfire risk since 2017, especially in areas like the Cairngorms. This rise is linked to changes in rainfall, humidity, and land use – factors that are all being shaped by a warming climate. While human-caused fires remain a factor, the overall risk is growing.
We urgently need to join the dots between the weather we experience day-to-day and the wider climate crisis driving these extremes. Better forecasting, smarter use of AI, and stronger data-sharing between countries could help predict and prepare for dangerous conditions before fires start.
The message is clear: the conditions that fuel dangerous wildfires are becoming more common in Scotland. Taking action now – from prevention and public awareness to stronger climate policies – will help protect our people, landscapes, and emergency services in the years to come.
Dr Ioana Colfescu, National Centre for Atmospheric Science, St Andrews University
Stop traffic
I could see the thick smoke from my flat as the Arthur’s Seat fire took hold
What I fail to understand is why we don’t stop traffic going through the park. Then we could bring back sheep along with some goats who would happily eat the gorse. The route up to the higher loch is usually closed off, so traffic doesn’t need access.
It would mean the swans and ducks could roam wherever they want, children would be free to run around and hopefully there would be no more fires on the top of Arthur’s Seat.
Elaine Pomeransky, Edinburgh
Life lessons
As someone whose driving licence has proved more useful than having an HND in Chemistry with Business Studies I wish education was not the political football it is.
In August 2024 I was out delivering SQA certificates in Cults and this year I was out delivering SQA certificates in Fraserburgh.
It is hardly rocket science that if you live in somewhere like Cults that is a more affluent and comfortable area to learn than somewhere like Printfield you will get better results.
I am not sure how the late Denis Law got on academically but he got results on the football field and is joint record goal scorer for the Scotland men’s national team.
Posties have to follow the simple instruction of ‘Do Not Bend’ but sometimes I feel like bending the ears of politicians and their supporters who constantly go on about PISA scores and the “attainment gap”.
Attaining what? Woodwork or practical skills? Chemistry qualifications? Sporting greatness? A driving licence? How on earth can you know what apparent gap in attainment you have to bridge if you don’t know what you are looking to attain, what the gold standard in attainment actually is and for what purpose?
Peter Ovenstone, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire
Yesterday’s news
So Nicola Sturgeon has followed other failed leaders in “doing the rounds” to promote her memoirs, a good little earner.
I have no interest in listening to, or reading about, a person who, through her intransigence and single-mindedness, presided over one of the most disastrous and divisive periods in Scottish politics and government. Her only skill was to convince the masses that she was right and that everyone else was wrong; oh and her ability to promote Nicola Sturgeon.
The lady is an attention seeker but she should accept that her time in the spotlight is now over. She is yesterday’s news.
Fred Chrystal, Haddington, East Lothian
No sense of irony
Constantly interrupting during yesterday morning’s BBC Radio 4 interview, part-time politician Nicola Sturgeon declared her dislike of “dry, tedious self-justifications” in political autobiography.
She also condemned opponents for “weaponising the gender debate.” Does she completely lack self-awareness or any sense of irony? This unapologetic self-publicist went on to defend her record during the pandemic, in clear denial that she and her party shamelessly weaponised Covid.
When pressed on what, exactly, she had achieved in government, our former first minister resorted to the “I’m from the west of Scotland, we don’t give ourselves marks out of ten” routine. How fortunate for her. Frankly, it’s a shame that Ms Sturgeon’s awful book has been given such undeserved coverage.
Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh
Moon madness
Our ex-first minister has been in the news so much recently that I shuddered at the thought the other night of a Sturgeon Moon. Fortunately it turned out to be a large, bright object in the night sky. Phew!
However the many revelations from her book and various interviews portray an equally frightening view of a leader who is proving to have been even more untrustworthy than her nemesis, Boris Johnson.
In revealing her love of London and the opportunities that it might open up for her, there is a stark contrast to the land that she would leave behind, where opportunities are few and far between, particularly for the poorly educated young. Still, she would be able to join her other committed nationalists (Blackford, Flynn) in the land of milk and honey. Scotland won’t miss her.
Ken Currie, Edinburgh
Tax exile
Will Nicola Sturgeon’s potential departure to England mean our ex-first minister will pay less in income tax than her ex “subjects”?
John Barrett, Gifford, East Lothian
Airport shame
Earlier this week I arrived at Edinburgh Airport on a flight from Sydney via Doha. It felt good to be home, until I walked along the corridor from the plane to passport control. The floor was filthy and looked as if it hadn’t been swept or cleaned in days. Passport control is a soulless barn of a place, with baggage reclaim carrying on the same lack of any brightness or welcome.
Goodness knows what foreign visitors must think of their introduction to Scotland’s capital city.
Jim Houston, Edinburgh
Trump trumped
For mental agility and ability to lie convincingly Vladimir Putin is streets ahead of Donald Trump.
All the time Putin’s in Alaska, he’ll be thinking “this really belongs to Russia” – in spite of the fact that the United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867. In the here and now, for Trump to even think of have a meeting on the future of Ukraine without Volodymyr Zelensky would be total betrayal.
Trump’s advisers seem too often to be strategically and tactically adrift, which enables Putin to run rings round him
I wouldn’t trust Vladimir Putin further than I can see him. And not even then.
Doug Morrison, Tenterden, Kent
Expensive joke
The UK Government’s costly military spending plans have been revealed, including new nuclear submarines. Britain is also to buy aircraft that can carry nuclear bombs from America. These deadly military items are apparently for Nato but still require US permission before being used. It is ridiculous that we have to pay to house these weapons over which we have little control!
Last week we remembered how 80 years ago America dropped atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, killing around 200,000 people. Today’s nuclear weapons present an greater danger to humanity and all life on Earth, especially with world leaders like Trump and Putin in charge.
In truth, Westminster cash has always been available for nuclear weapons, with less or none for the poor, disadvantaged and disabled.
In this post-imperial false super power phase, the UK’s supposedly independent nuclear deterrent remains a hugely expensive joke.
Grant Frazer, Newtonmore, Highland
Blessed Biddy
The only news to personally affect me so far this week was the death of Blue Peter supremo Biddy Baxter.
I once (aged about ten) got a personally signed letter from her in reply to a letter I excitedly sent to Blue Peter about what I thought was a mistake on a postage stamp: she very gently explained my mistake, and I was thrilled, not having expected any reply at all.
Of course I lost the letter long ago, but the news has dispelled the numbness I’ve recently felt about daily deaths and images of towns demolished by war. Bless you, Biddy.
Steve Hayes, Leven, Fife
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