Wildfire destruction by the numbers

Quick, when did you last notice the air "sucked" and you couldn't safely exercise outside? The answer stupid is when smoke from a wildfire is blown into your area. The elephant in the room here is the pawltry amount spent on wildfire suppression each year, while the US spends infinately more on "global warming" crap which doesn't move the needle...while China continues to pollute the earth.

Want some metrics. Snitz fired up Gemini. The point here, is if you want the air you breath to improve spend more money on wildfire suppression and less money on all the "green" crap that does little.

Estimate the cost for the us spent on green energy and efforts to combat global warning in the US per year

Total spending and capital investment on green energy and climate efforts in the United States averages between $270 billion and $300 billion per year.

This figure combines federal appropriations, tax incentives, corporate capital expenditures, and consumer purchases.  

IEA – International Energy Agency

Category	Estimated Annual Spend	Key Areas & Drivers
Retail & Consumer Adoption	~$135B – $145B	Electric vehicle (EV) purchases, residential rooftop solar, battery storage, and heat pumps.
Utility-Scale Energy & Grid	~$95B – $105B	Large-scale solar farms, onshore/offshore wind, grid modernization, and utility battery installations.
Clean Tech Manufacturing	~$35B – $45B	Domestic gigafactories for batteries, solar module manufacturing, and EV assembly plants.
Emerging Tech & Adaptation	~$10B – $20B	Clean hydrogen, carbon capture & storage (CCS), coastal resilience, and disaster mitigation.

Primary Funding Sources

• Federal Policy Drivers: The bulk of public funding flows through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (IIJA), which together inject an average of $40B to $60B annually through direct grants, loan guarantees, and uncapped clean energy tax credits.  

  IEA – International Energy Agency

  
  

• Private & Corporate Investment: Private capital accounts for roughly 75% to 80% of total deployment, heavily mobilized by federal matching funds and tax equity financing.

• State & Local Programs: States like California, New York, and Texas contribute billions in local mandate funding, regional grid upgrades, and state-level zero-emission rebates.  

  Climate Central

  
  

Wildfire destruction by the numbers

USA Facts

Aug 18, 2026

Wildfires have burned more than 230 million acres nationwide since 1983— that’s more than twice the area of California. They’re burning more land on average ever since federal fire agency tracking began in the 1980s. How many wildfires happen in the US, and how have they changed over time?

Wildfires burned an average of over 7 million acres of land each year of the last decade. However, last year, wildfires burned 5.1 million acres, down 43% from 2024’s total (8.9 million). 

Wildfires burned in every state last year, but they burned the most acres in Alaska (1.01 million). California had the second-most acres destroyed: 505,994.

However, looking at acres burned per 10,000 acres in a state tells a different story. After adjusting for state sizes, Oklahoma had the most destruction: 68 acres burned for every 10,000. Florida had the second-most (55.5 burned acres per 10,000), while Washington had the third (54.1 acres).

Wildfire acreage per every 10,00 acres

Costs for containing and extinguishing fires, known as fire suppression, have risen even when adjusting for inflation. In 2001, suppression costs were less than $2.0 billion (adjusted to 2024 dollars). Annual costs have averaged $3.8 billion in the five most recent years of data.

In 2025, wildfires damaged a reported 18,385 structures. Nearly 90% of these buildings, about 16,324, were in Southern California.