From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/daviz/burnt-forest-area-in-five-4#tab-chart_5
The European Environment Agency has not yet published its wildfire data for 2023 yet, but they did issue the final data for 2022 in October. So I have updated its graph above of burnt area for EUMEDS, the five countries listed – Portugal, Spain, France, Italy and Greece – which it has not updated since 2020.
https://effis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/reports-and-publications/effis-related-publications
The chart gives the lie to claims that wildfires are now much worse.
The 2022 report states that 96% of wildfires are caused by human actions. It is a simple fact that much of the Mediterranean region is a tinder box every summer, just waiting for a spark.
Provisional data for last year is, I believe, due out in April, so I’ll update then.
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I was in Greece and Italy in their recent summer (July / August 2023) at the time of the media hyped wildfires. My guides in both Greece and Italy were at pains to explain to me that the fires are mostly due to deliberate or careless people. Some said that local firefighting groups, who are largely volunteer based and only paid when there were fires to be extinguished, have been found to be responsible for deliberately lighting fires for their own ends.
Same, sad, pathetic news from the Canada fires – lots of arson (though no knowledge if it’s tied to the volunteer firefighters) – poor little birds and other animals roasted alive if they weren’t able to “migrate” in time.
Arson varies, is investigated. Few volunteer firefighters any more.
A friend of ours son-in-law was a volunteer firefighter in AUS’, he is now in clink for arson, the family is devastated that he could do such a thing.
A lot of fires in California are lit by arsonists as well.
And a lot that aren’t arson are people being careless.
Streetcred, the deliberate fires are a huge problem in Chile right now. In the Viña Del Mar coastal region the arsonists waited for temperature and wind conditions to be right and started four fires in a coordinated effort, which raced through mixed trees and houses neighborhoods, destroying thousands of houses, killing at least 100 persons, with hundreds missing, and hot spots in the fires continuing to burn. Appears that arson is a favorite tool of global warming loonies, Indigenous Rights groups, and under-utilized fire fighters. Factor that into wildfire statistics.
Update: the intentional fire in the Viña Del Mar region of Chile: 112 dead, hundreds disappeared, 1,300 houses totally destroyed, and another 12,000+ houses damaged and not easily livable.
SO last I remember, Chile has a FAR LEFT president elected in 2021, but I just found that the “Far Right” Republican got 22 of 50 votes for the council to rewrite the constitution created during the Pinochet dictatorship. With other “right wing” parties, the lunatic radical right will have 30 of 50 votes allowing them to ignore the communists/socialists/climate fanatics.
The thing is I never heard of this huge swing by Chile’s voters which predated the presidential election in Argentina by 6 months.
So let us hope the swing works its way north through South America.
Brazil will be tough with their courts blocking the right leaning candidate at every turn and for the left, recertifying the current president, previously convicted of graft and corruption, to run and win. Dictatorship of the courts, much like Netanyahu is trying to fix in Israel.
Of course the reason for the swing to the right in Argentina and Chile is the damage the left has done to their economies.
As to the new constitution, the left drew up a leftist proposal that was soundly rejected by the population, forcing the election of a new Constitutional Council. The left’s attempt to create a constitution giving them the power liberals want in the US made the voters realize LEFT was a BAD idea.
Let us see how the “FAR RIGHT” does in creating a new constitution. The ratification vote will tell the world what is FAR right. And what is propaganda.
Europe’s forests are the worst managed ever.
I would exempt Germany and Switzerland from that statement.
Are you basing that on some reference? I’m in California, have a home up in the South Sierra, and while the public forest could possibly be managed worse, it’s hard to imagine how.
I was in central europe for 2 weeks in June 2023, travelled from Vienna to Zurich, took our time, austria germany lichtenstien switzerland and Italy, a nice drive, from deep valleys to above the treeline several times, east to west, north and south.
At one meeting someone repeated the comment about trees under climate stress, dying, so i explained all the driving i had done and i tend to watch closely, didn’t see one dying tree anywhere. I asked what trees and where, i would be happy to go look as i was there anyway.
Crickets.
Or i thought they were crickets. Are there crickets in western Austria?
Ouch.
In B.C. lightning is a common cause, human carelessness/negligence often, some arson.
Lightning varies, lightning without rain is bad. Technology to detect lightning strikes and pinpoint location is now available.
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Eucalyptus trees are native to Australia and some Indonesian islands.
Wikipedia says:
Eucalypts have been grown in plantations in many other countries because they are fast growing and have valuable timber, or can be used for pulpwood, for honey production or essential oils. In some countries, however, they have been removed because of the danger of forest fires due to their high flammability.
We toured Portugal a while back and our guide told us about the fire danger of the invasive eucalyptus forests. Indeed, from the bus window Portugal looked like one giant eucalyptus forest.
California with its Mediterranean climate has a eucalyptus problem too.
Drive through forests of some varieties of Eucalypts on a hot day, and the smell of the oils in the air can be almost overpowering. Really cleans out the sinuses.
Just don’t strike a match !!
I live in country town in NSW with large State Forests on two sides.
I purposely have no big eucalyptus trees anywhere near the house, But I see towering trees over many of my neighbours’ places, and hope/pray that we don’t get a hot windy day, with some clown starting a fire.
Chile too, and they are having a bad time.
More than a suspicion of arson
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2024/02/04/chile-chile-wildfire-death-toll-64/9591707079254/
Mike and MrGrim, sorry I posted a comment about the Chile fires above before reaching your comments. The area of Chile just destroyed is loaded with eucalyptus trees, which turn out to be part of the arsonists strategy.
And don’t forget the Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pine). Just waiting for a fire so it can gain ground over other species
”The tree is able to quickly colonize open and disturbed areas. It is classed as an invasive species in South Africa.[8] It can grow on all substrates and almost in all bioclimates in the Mediterranean.[9]”
wiki
Part of it is indeed the oil in eucalyptus wood, but also the shedding bark on about half of the species. If not harvested or removed, the bark provides a great deal of easily ignited fuel.
As Oakland knows only too well.
I saw that around San Diego many years ago. My father stayed there in the winters (he lived in Ontario) and told me a story about why it was a bad idea to transplant them to other areas. He illustrated that through a story of how, when he was a boy in Victoria, fires would be fuelled by the oils and many times jump across roads as wide as 2 chains (roads were one chain wide usually)
Even the BBC didn’t try to link this Scottish electrical wildfire to the recent record warmth. That didn’t stop some.
https://news.stv.tv/highlands-islands/lochinver-wildfire-raged-for-five-miles-in-just-three-hours-after-damage-to-power-line-amid-high-winds
Imagine if the world combusted at 19.9C all the time! Of course winter burning of heath etc. for landscape management shows it burns regardless.
If you look at 100 year old photos of the Mediterranean zone you will see much less or no trees near populated places be it a farm or a town. The first thing people in those days would do when starting a new settlement would be to cut or burn down the forest. Close to the village for arable land and further away for livestock.
Wildfires would normally have no or little effect on the population.
Also, back then, they’d use whatever wood was available for heating and cooking.
Were it not for ‘fossil’ fuels there would be no trees standing in Europe today.
Cape Cod Mass. was essentially denuded in the early 1900s due to use of the forests for firewood. Oil heat changed that, along with electrification. Now the entire Cape is heavily wooded.
I just had the yard around my mother’s home bush wacked to remove all the undergrowth and any tree under 6 inch trunk removed to 20 feet or more from the house. When the home was built in 1983 you could see the bay from a window, now nothing but trees, so the reforestation is ongoing even today.
The sand hill the house was built on had no trees then. Because of my mother’s insistence on NOT cutting the scrub pines, about 1/2 of her 1 acre lot is covered with 30 ft. or taller pines, with scrub oaks starting to take over. My Mom threw a fit when I had the areas around the house cleared but mosquitoes and ticks are a big problem. Keeping the yard cleared makes it easier to control those pests. AND Lime disease is a serious health hazard.
no image at the top?
I don’t mean at the top of the thread- but the icon in the list of topics.
then there is this: http://www.debunkingclimate.com/wildfires.html
So except for the summer of 2017 being particularly bad in Portugal this chart would be an even more pronounced downward trend.
Of course, that just means the discussion point is canada 2023, ignoring that most of those fires were started by people too, and of course the lower 48 usa was 1/3 of average, far below record.
Last time i checked, climate change is supposed to affect the planet not individual countries.
Big problems in B.C. are:
Neither is news but year after year after year – with some politicking or worse.
The proven Martin Mars fire bomber and some trained tribal firefighters were not on contract.