Two Centuries of forest fire records

We've all seen those scary TV commercials showing a future of fire and brimstone as a result of global warming. With the effects of global warming already upon us, you would expect to find some evidence of increasing forest fires in the historical record. Well, this study - Temporal variability in area burned for the province of Ontario, Canada by Girardin, M.P., Tardif, J. and Flannigan, M.D. reaches a startlingly different conclusion:

Although the researchers say that, according to theory, "one should expect greater area burned in a changing climate," especially one that is driven by anthropogenic-induced increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, their findings supply no support for this contention. In fact, they argue strongly against it.

via CO2 Science