This photo captures the O Courel fire in July 2022, a blaze that raged uncontained for several days, ultimately becoming one of the most devastating forest fires in recent history of Galicia (Spain). Galicia is one of the regions in Europe with the highest frequency of forest fires.
Last year, an area around twice the size of Luxembourg was burnt in the EU.
It was the fourth worst year since 2000 regarding areas affected by wildfires. This is also due to the single largest fire to occur in Europe since the 1980s.
We call for greater prevention and preparedness via:
🔹 nature-based solutions like vegetation management
🔸 wildfire early warning systems
🔹 the efficient firefighting means that the #EUCivilProtection Mechanism offers.
It is high time to think out of the box and to adopt new practices to prevent forest fires.
Apart from exchanging existing #tree species with more heat and #drought resistent types, as some countries like #Germany are doing, active forest management with preventive #fires to destroy the accumulated undergrowth that tends to become a tinder box is of the essence. Many countries could learn a lot from indigenous...
"For more than 13,000 years...hundreds of...tribes 👉across...the world used small intentional burns to renew local food, medicinal and cultural resources, create habitat for animals, and reduce the risk of larger, more dangerous wild fires."👈
"Eight firefighters died and some 230,000 people were displaced from their homes during last year's worst-ever season... Linking the issue to climate change, a minister warned that this year could prove even more devastating."
Fresh research published in early 2024 continues to uncover the true cost on biodiversity, the economy and public health triggered by unprecedented wildfires that swept Australia in late 2019 and early 2020.
Alberta is declaring an early start to the 2024 wildfire season. The province, announced Tuesday the fire season is now underway as a result of warmer-than-normal temperatures and below-average precipitation.
There are 54 forest fires burning in Alberta today. 52 of them started in 2023.
"The fires have ravaged thousands of hectares of forest since Friday, cloaking coastal cities in a dense fog of grey smoke and forcing people to flee their homes in the central regions of Vina del Mar and Valparaiso.
As Chile and Colombia battle rising temperatures, the heatwave is also threatening to sweep over Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil in the coming days."
CHIBOUGAMAU, Que. - A Quebec man who posted conspiracy theories online that forest fires were being deliberately set by the government has pleaded guilty to starting a series of fires himself that forced hundreds of people from their homes.
You think it was hard this year when inflation raised the prices of everything because of the #UkraineWar, #heatWaves, #floods or #forestFires? Well you better be prepared because that's only the start! Every year from now on will be worst!
How satellite technology is being used in France to fight forest fires.
With climate change and the consequent increase in the frequency and intensity of heat waves, summers are now characterised by forest fires. In recent years, to track, trace and ultimately control forest fires, the French space agency CNES is assisting firefighters by offering them help from space.
"Forest fires are becoming more widespread, burning twice as much tree cover today as they did 20 years ago.
#ClimateChange is one of the major drivers of increasing #fire activity. Extreme #heatwaves are already 5 times more likely today than they were 150 years ago and are expected to become even more frequent as the planet continues to warm. Hotter temperatures dry out the landscape and help create the perfect environment for larger, more frequent #ForestFires."