Extreme forest fires have doubled over the past twenty years. This is what a study in the journal reveals Nature, which appears while the fire season is just starting in the Northern Hemisphere. Mega-fires have never been so numerous and intense, boosted by global warming. A warming to which these fires themselves contribute.
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More numerous and more powerful: the study authors focused on the most intense forest fires, mega-fires as they are sometimes called. Globally, there are now on average twice as many each year as there were twenty years ago.
The main affected are American coniferous forests, which are now experiencing 11 times more fires. Boreal and northern forests, from the north of the American continent and Siberia are seven times more affected by these fires.
Read alsoCanada: early forest fires revive the nightmare of summer 2023
All continents impacted
But it is indeed all continents that are affected, with dramatic consequences. In Australia for example, during the dark summers of 2019 and 2020, it is the equivalent of almost the surface area of the Senegal which went up in flames, around 200,000 km2, and nearly three billion animals who perished.
These fires also cause the release of more than 300 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, further amplifying global warming. The phenomenon is self-driven, because it is the increasing aridity of forests which makes them more likely to burn. Aridity amplified by warming.
Read alsoForest fires in Türkiye: heavy human toll, electrical installations singled out
Greece: Members of yacht crew must appear in court after fire started by fireworks
Although they deny any responsibility, the thirteen members of the crew of a yacht must appear in court this Wednesday. This weekend, during a festive evening, fireworks fired from their luxury boat sparked a fire in the only pine forest on the upscale tourist island of Hydra. In Greecewhere the penalties have recently been toughened, the perpetrators risk up to twenty years in prison and a fine of a maximum amount of 200,000 euros, reports our correspondent in Athens, Joel Bronner.
By setting up an immediate appearance procedure, the Greek authorities and justice system give the impression of wanting to make an example, while the fire season. A way of appealing to everyone’s civic sense, at a time when the country is simultaneously facing a new heat wave.
However, only the crew members of the yacht called “Persefoni I” – all of Greek nationality – found themselves pursued. The fifteen foreign visitors who were on board the luxury boat have already set sail. Proof of the embarrassment caused by this affair of incendiary fireworks, the Hellenic police published a press release to refute any responsibility for their flight, emphasizing that they never received the order to prevent their departure from the country. .