Like I have said a thousand times, test the logic with an extreme example..

So if every single square foot of land in the entire US burned down to the dirt one year there would be absolutely nothing left to burn the following year. The chart would be sky-high and then the amount of acres burned would go to 0. In the opinion of George Will that would be a sign that everything was fine and dandy. He is an idiot in a bow tie, the worst kind.