Daniel Swain in WIRED: More Lightning in the Arctic Is Bad News for the Planet

Lightning strikes have become more common in the Arctic over the last decade, and they’re expected to become ever more frequent over the next century. Two new studies present evidence that the phenomenon is linked to climate change, and that the wildfires sparked by Arctic lightning will accelerate climate change even more.  “The Arctic is a rapidly changing place, and this is an aspect of the transformation that I’m not sure has gotten a whole lot of attention, but it’s actually really consequential,” says UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t involved in the research.