At least 112 people have been killed by wildfires in central Chile, leading its president to declare two days of national mourning. Scientists say climate change makes the heat waves and drought now hitting South America more likely — and both contribute to wildfires by drying out the plants that feed the blazes. “Climate change has made droughts more common,” said Mitchard. Climate change makes stronger El Niños more likely, said Mitchard, and droughts caused by it are likelier to be more intense. And the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found that globally, extreme heat waves happen five times more often because of human-caused global warming.

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Persons: Edward Mitchard, ”, We’ve, Mitchard, — Organizations: South America, University of Edinburgh School of Geosciences, it's, World Resources Institute, Associated Press Locations: Chile, Colombia, CHILE, Santiago, Scotland, South America, Belgium, AP.org