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Summary

The article paper highlights the Global trends in wildfire and its impacts. Wildfire has been a long-standing Earth process, coexisting with human societies for centuries. Despite common beliefs in increasing fire occurrence and severity, the available quantitative evidence does not support these perceptions. Instead, the global area burned has generally decreased in recent decades, and there is growing evidence of less fire in the global landscape compared to centuries ago. Fire severity data, primarily for the western USA, suggest little overall change and a decline in high-severity burns compared to pre-European settlement. Direct fatalities and economic losses from the fire show no clear trends over the past three decades. Indirect impacts, such as health issues from smoke or disruptions to social functioning, lack sufficient quantification for examination.