NASA GLOBAL LAND-OCEAN TEMPERATURE INDEX Agreed, news is subject to hysteria and is often unreliable - "if it bleeds it leads - . . . however, in the 40 years I have lived in my location, forest fires have occured only in the past 8 years, coinciding with extreme heat waves that we have never seen before, unprecedented heat waves, hotter than I exprienced during my term in the Middle East/Kuwait, Iraq, Syria in the 70's.
Business as usual seems unwise at best.
https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/