aljazeera--2019-02-01--Bangkok chokes as pollution busting efforts falter

Bangkok, Thailand - The small park in Bangkok's Rama III district is mostly popular with runners circling its neatly trimmed garden track to the sound of birdsong.  But on Thursday, they were joined by a convoy of fire trucks and half a dozen military drones, drawing dozens of curious onlookers.  After an hour setting up, the drones and water cannon were pumping thick plumes of water into the empty sky above. Speakers blared warnings about the operation and instructed runners to keep their distance.  The odd display was the Thai government's latest attempt at curbing the alarmingly high levels of pollution that have been plaguing the capital for weeks. The drones, geared with water tanks and fire-fighting sprinklers, were supposed to break up the smog that has been smothering the city of around 10 million people for at least a month.  Initially, Thailand's authorities said the worsening pollution was being blown over from China, predicting that it would be gone within a week or so. Then, as the smog persisted, they tried cloud seeding. Now, drones and water cannon are their latest salvo.  "Do they actually think this is going to help?" asked Gong, a 50-year-old man who comes to the park often to use its free-weight gym.  "The only thing happening today is that runners are getting wet and they have to watch out for these drones," he said, drawing laughter from weightlifters nearby.  As amusing as they might have found the scene, Bangkok residents are welcoming any attempts to combat the toxic smog that has forced authorities to close more than 400 schools, advise people to wear a mask when they're not indoors and limit the time they spend outside.      New research from Thailand's National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) suggests Bangkok's air has reached particularly concerning levels of toxicity, with the lingering smog being full of dangerous heavy metals and various carcinogenic compounds.  Professor Siwatt Pongpiachan, director of NIDA and a global leading expert on urban pollution, told Al Jazeera he was concerned to find that Bangkok's air contained dangerous levels of cadmium, tungsten, arsenic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) inside the fine dust air, known as PM 2.5.  Siwatt explained that their levels are particularly dangerous, based on the World Health Organization's (WHO) standards for measuring safe air, adding that Bangkok's pollution was largely coming from within the city itself.  PAHs are toxic carcinogenic compounds that can be sourced to forest fires, car exhausts, cigarette smoke and insecticides, among others.  The Thai capital, meanwhile, has some 10 million registered vehicles, pollutant-pumping factories and numerous daily cremations.  Siwatt said the widespread burning of sugarcane fields in northern provinces is also contributing to the crisis, which makes tackling the problem extremely difficult.  The WHO has been campaigning to decrease toxic pollution around the globe for years, educating the public on the dangers to health and urging governments to prioritise clean air as megacities such as New Delhi and Beijing struggle with debilitating levels of pollution. Its guideline for PM2.5 is for an annual average of no more than 10 micrograms/cubic metre.  Bangkok has never seen pollution on this scale, and many residents were shocked at the smog lurking above. On social media, where Thais often go to express their outrage, memes comparing the city to post-apocalyptic backdrops in films such as Bladerunner 2049 and Mad Max have been widely shared.  Many are concerned the government is focusing on the symptoms rather than the cause of the problem.  "I think we need to push the government with a sense of urgency if we want to see positive results," said Sirima Panyametheekul, an academic in the Department of Environmental Engineering at Thailand's Chulalongkorn University. "We need urgent measures to be implemented, like reducing the density of traffic and cleaning the streets."  Thailand also needs to adopt more stringent measures for PM2.5, she added.  The density of the microscopic particles can reach 50 micrograms for each cubic metre volume before the government has to act, according to Sirima, who recommends that level be halved.  Currently, air quality is sitting around 61 to 93 micrograms/cubic metre depending on the location.  "I know that's challenging," she said. "But it's important. If not 25, we can at least start at 35 or 30."  The government, which dropped a plan to use sugar water that was supposed to "capture" the toxins, stands by its approach to the current air crisis.  "It's going to work," said Somjiak Nonthagaew, the director of Bangkok's Fire and Rescue Department, on deploying drones and fire-fighting equipment to combat the smog.  "It should definitely help, but of course not 100 percent. We would have liked to do more, but we have limited options and resources. But we sprayed at six locations today, and we think it was a success," added Nonthagaew, between shouting loud updates into his phone as the mist began to descend over the park.  But Siwatt is not convinced.  He says Thailand needs to develop policies that would reduce the toxic compounds in the air, citing neighbouring countries such as Singapore and the Philippines. He's also urging authorities to introduce a Clean Air Act, like the one the British government rolled out after the deadly 1952 London Smog, which blanketed the UK capital for several days.  Thai authorities say that the current smog should lift in a few days as a result of their tackling operations. According to Somjiak, they plan to deploy water cannons and drones until the air quality improves.  But without major changes, the smog is bound to return.  "It's going to take a few years before we see any Clean Air Act laws," Siwatt said. "And before thinking about the timeframe, we need to convince the government and all the future political parties to agree that Thailand really needs clean air."


aljazeera--2019-04-01--China says 30 killed fighting forest fire in Sichuan province

At least 27 firefighters have died after they were sent to tackle a forest blaze in remote mountains in southwest China's Sichuan province at the weekend, authorities said on Monday.  The deaths occurred after a change of wind on Sunday as the firefighters were battling the blaze in a rugged area at an altitude of 3,800 metres, according to the Ministry of Emergency Management and the military.  The ministry said three local residents recruited to help fight the blaze also died.  Nearly 700 people were battling the fire in Sichuan's Muli county that erupted on Saturday, but contact was lost on Sunday with the 30. Two helicopters carrying medical staff and military personnel were dispatched to help in the search.  China has been battling forest fires in recent weeks in various parts of the vast country, including on the outskirts of Beijing, fed by dry weather and high winds across many northern areas.  The death toll among the firefighters appeared to be the worst since 2015, when an explosion at a chemical warehouse in the port city of Tianjin killed 173 people, most of them firefighters and other first responders.  That blast was blamed on illegal construction and unsafe storage of volatile materials.  Scores of workers have also died in recent industrial accidents, including 85 in a pair of explosions last month.

disaster, accident and emergency incident


aljazeera--2019-04-05--Thousands evacuated after South Koreas wildfire

Thousands evacuated after South Korea's wildfire

Thousands of firefighters and soldiers are starting to contain wildfires in South Korea which has killed one person and forced more than 4,000 people to flee their homes.  The fires broke out in eastern Gangwon Province on Thursday evening from a transformer spark near a resort, according to Choi Jin-ho, a fire captain at Gangwon Fire Headquarters. The fire then spread to the cities of Sokcho and Gangneung, burning about 525 hectares and around 198 homes, warehouses and other buildings by early Friday, the government said.  About 2,263 people have been evacuated to gymnasiums and schools by early Friday, down from about 4,230 citizens earlier, and 52 schools were closed due to the fires.  The fire in the Sokcho region has been contained, the government said, while about 50 percent of the fire in the Gangneung region has been contained.  Around 872 fire trucks and 3,251 firefighters from all over the country are currently working to contain the wildfire, the National Fire Agency said.  The Ministry of Defense said almost 16,500 soldiers, 32 military helicopters and 26 military firetrucks have been deployed as well, and there are plans to provide meals for 6,800 people.  Videos posted to social media in South Korea showed tall flames rising from large areas of forest, the air filled with embers and debris as cars drove by the raging fire.  News photos showed a burned-out bus, fire engulfing a hill, and residents evacuating apartment complexes and filing into gyms.  The region is close to the border with North Korea. South Korea's Unification Ministry said Friday it plans to inform North Korea of details about the forest fires.  Another Gangwon fire official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of office rules, said at least 11 people were being treated for injuries.


aljazeera--2019-06-26--Europe heatwave Temperatures soar as heat nears record levels

Europe heatwave: Temperatures soar as heat nears record levels

Tourists in Rome and Paris have scaled back their sightseeing in sweltering temperatures, dousing themselves at fountains and cooling down with ice cream as a heatwave continued in continental Europe.  "With this hot sun we try and keep to the cooler places," said Fari, a Spanish tourist to the Italian capital, speaking by the Trevi fountain on Tuesday.  "From 8 o'clock we are out looking at Rome, and from midday we eat ice cream," he added.  Southern France has also been particularly hot with the southern town of Carpentras breaking its temperature record. An average June provides a pleasant 28 degrees Celsius in Carpentras on any day.  The unusually hot weather reached Poland on Monday, where Krakow recorded 32C, 10 degrees above average but not quite a June record. It stretched to Lithuania where Vilnius, the capital, measured 29C, eight above average.  The heat will build more during Thursday and Friday in France, Italy and Spain.  On Friday, extreme highs up to 43C are possible in southern France, northeast Spain and northern Italy. This would break June heat records.  According to reports, the high temperatures have already claimed the lives of three people.  French meteorological service Meteo-France has issued an orange alert, the second highest level of weather warning.  "We could see temperatures in localised areas hit record highs," Meteo France said on Monday. "This heatwave could be remarkable for how early it has come as well as its intensity."  The current conditions have brought memories in France of August 2003, when the temperatures hit as high as 44.1C causing the deaths of some 15,000 people.  In Spain, AEMET warned of an "extreme risk" of forest fires.  While in Italy, at the coastal town of Eloro in Sicily, 41 cars were engulfed in flames on Monday after a fire broke out close to a car park where beachgoers had left their vehicles.  In Germany, Berlin police have been asked to wear full summer uniforms, including long trousers and closed shoes, but may be allowed to remove their caps under the current circumstances, a spokesman said on Wednesday.  In what is now becoming a familiar story, the weather pattern is static again over Europe.  "This produces an extreme of conditions, dependent upon the time of year. We are now in early summer so the result is a building heatwave," Al Jazeera's Rob McElwee said.  The controlling force of the weather is the Jet Stream, a fast-flowing wind-river that loops around the northern hemisphere at a height of 10 kilometres.  "The forecast from climate change models and the actuality of the last few years has shown a change to this Jet Stream," McElwee said.  "It now has much greater loops, draped over North America and Eurasia, whereas a tighter, straighter flow used to be the norm. A looped Jet Stream induces long-lasting, low-pressure circulations and high-pressure domes," he added.  Such a set-up has drawn air up from North Africa, in a southerly breeze, to cover Western Europe.  Over the coming days the heatwave will be increasingly confined to France, Italy and Spain as a cooler breeze flows across northern and central Europe.  According to scientists, heatwaves can become really dangerous when they take place in early summer. Europe's 2003 heatwave resulted in the deaths of an estimated 70,000 people.


aljazeera--2019-06-27--Hell is coming Europe on alert as heatwave intensifies

'Hell is coming': Europe on alert as heatwave intensifies

Europe's record-breaking heatwave is forecast to intensify further on Thursday with authorities on high alert as temperatures threaten to exceed 40 degrees Celsius in some parts of the continent.  The stifling heat prompted traffic restrictions in France, sparked forest fires in Spain, and fanned debate in Germany over public nudity as sweltering residents stripped down.  Meteorologists blame a blast of hot air from northern Africa for the heat this week, which has already set new records in Europe for June. According to reports, the high temperatures have already claimed the lives of three people.  Exceptional for arriving so early in summer, the heatwave will on Thursday and Friday likely send mercury above 40C in France, Spain and Greece.  In Spain, hundreds of firefighters and soldiers, backed by water-dropping aircraft, battled on Wednesday to put out a wind-fuelled forest fire that erupted in Torre del Espanol in the northeastern region of Catalonia.  The worst is expected on Friday when 33 of the 50 Spanish provinces face extreme temperatures, which could reach 44C in Girona.  In France, temperatures "unprecedented" for their timing and intensity since detailed surveys started in 1947 were expected to reach at least 39C over two-thirds of the country, said weather service Meteo-France.  Health official Jerome Saloman said the effect of the extreme heat was starting to be felt in France, with an increase in weather-related calls to emergency medical services.  Some schools were expected to close on Thursday and Friday while several cities - including Paris and Lyon - restricted traffic to limit a build-up of air pollution.  French authorities were taking no chances after the August 2003 heatwave was blamed for 15,000 deaths in the country, with television and radio broadcasts issuing warnings.  In Greece, where about 100 people were killed in last year's deadly fires at the Mati coastal resort, hospitals and officials were on red alert with temperatures of 45C.  With the mercury soaring, firefighters were battling to contain a wildfire near an arms factory some 50km from the capital, Athens. The fire had forced the evacuation of a small refugee camp but was not threatening homes.  The fire service said three water-dropping helicopters were assisting more than 40 personnel with 19 fire engines and water tankers near the town of Lavrio, southeast of the capital. Strong winds are fanning the flames through low vegetation.  Another wildfire on the island of Evia was under partial control, the fire service said.  Scientists warn global warming linked to human fossil fuel use could make such scorchers more frequent.  "Global temperatures are increasing due to climate change," said Len Shaffrey, a professor of climate science at the University of Reading.  "The global rise in temperatures means the probability that extreme heatwave will occur is also increasing."  But French winemakers said the hot weather was more than welcome as it could produce a superior vintage.  "Two of three days of a heatwave in Bordeaux at this time, it's magic," said Philippe Bardet, head of the Bordeaux Wine Council.  Temperatures above 40C would help burn off any of the mildew caused by residual damp, which is "very, very good for quality", Bardet said.  The 70-year-old record for the highest temperature recorded for June was beaten in Germany as 38.6C was recorded in Brandenburg, the German Weather Service (DWD) confirmed on Wednesday.  Meanwhile, police in Brandenburg cautioned a naked man for driving his moped wearing only his helmet and sandals.  And in Munich, security guards ordered a group of women sunbathing topless on the banks of the Isar River to cover up.  The move backfired, according to the Munich newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, which quoted another sunbather as saying she and others took their tops off "out of solidarity".  It said an urgent motion was introduced in a city council meeting to allow topless bathing.  Scores of people have drowned in Poland and Lithuania as they tried to cool off in lakes and rivers, authorities said.  The Polish weather institute IMGW said the country's highest ever June temperature was recorded on Wednesday in the southwest: 38.2C.  The Czech Hydrometeorological Institute also recorded the country's highest June temperature: 38.9C in the northern town of Doksany.  In Belgium, vastly different temperatures were expected with 19C on the north coast and 33C in the south, according to broadcaster RTBF.


aljazeera--2019-06-28--Spain Catalonia battles worst wildfire in 20 years amid heatwave

Spain: Catalonia battles worst wildfire in 20 years amid heatwave

Catalan firefighters are battling the worst wildfire the Spanish region has seen in 20 years as Europe swelters in the grip of an intense heatwave.  Hundreds of firefighters struggled to contain a wildfire in the northeastern region of Catalonia on Friday that has scorched more than 5,500 hectares of land and forced the evacuation of some 53 residents.  A day earlier, authorities warned that the blaze, which began on Wednesday afternoon, could easily devour 20,000 hectares if it was not contained.  A military unit with 230 specialists joined local firefighters on Thursday, toiling overnight to control the blaze in the Tarragona province.  In a statement on Friday morning, the Catalan regional government said while progress had been made to contain the fire, it was not yet fully extinguished and operations would continue with the support of planes and helicopters dropping water on the flames.  Authorities described the blaze as the worst in Catalonia in two decades. In comments to local radio station Catalunya Radio, Interior Minister Miquel Buch recalled a "hard night" made worse by the province's hilly terrain.  "The difficulties are such that we can't talk about a fire that is under control or in the extinction phase, but rather that we're at a moment when the blaze is getting bigger".  Buch added that authorities suspect the cause of the outbreak was a deposit of improperly-stored chicken manure at a farm in the village of La Torre de l'Espanyol that high temperatures caused to combust.  Firefighters said that temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius, low humidity and high winds fanned the flames, helping the fire to spread.  Many evacuees told the Spanish media that they had fled the flames with just the clothes on their backs.  "All I took with me were my car keys, my mobile phone, my wallet and my dogs. Nothing else," one unidentified man told Spain's Telecinco TV channel.  Around 30 people, including British and German residents, spent a second night huddled in a school in the village of Flix on Thursday, local media reported.  Emergency services have ordered the roughly 250 residents of the nearby village of the Bovera and some 900 people in Maials village to stay indoors to avoid inhaling the poisonous smoke spewed by the fire.  The charred land includes vineyards, olive groves and fruit orchards. A farm burned down in La Torre de l'Espanyol, killing more than 200 sheep and at least two horses, according to an AFP news agency's photographer at the scene.  The fire raged just seven kilometres from the Asco nuclear plant, but officials said the site was not at risk since winds were blowing the flames away from it and it was located on the other side of a river.  However, Catalan President Quim Torra warned that Friday was expected to be the hottest day of the heatwave and that "the situation will be critical" in all of Catalonia.  He announced on Thursday night that the harvesting of crops would be banned for 48 hours to avoid accidentally sparking fires, and that access to mountains and a national park would be restricted as a precaution as long as the high temperatures continue. Several roads were also closed.  Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, currently attending the G20 summit in Japan expressed his concern about the situation on Wednesday and thanked emergency services and troops for their efforts.  The fire comes amid a record-breaking heatwave in Europe that has seen traffic restrictions, school closures and forest fires in several countries.  Meteorologists blame a blast of hot air from northern Africa for scorching temperatures early in the European summer, which could send thermometers towards 40 Celsius in France, Spain and Greece on Friday.


aljazeera--2019-07-21--More than 1000 firefighters battle wildfires in central Portugal

More than 1,000 firefighters battle wildfires in central Portugal

More than a thousand firefighters have been deployed to battle a wildfire sweeping across central Portugal.  The mobilisation on Sunday was one of the biggest seen in Castelo Branco region, 200 kilometres north of the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, and included 1,100 firefighters and 340 vehicles, according to the rescue services.  The biggest effort - 760 firefighters, 230 vehicles and 11 planes and helicopters - battled to douse flames in the municipality of Vila de Rei, which had spread nearly 25km.  One seriously injured civilian was evacuated by helicopter to Lisbon, the commander of the civil protection authority for the region, Luis Belo Costa, told a news conference.  Four firefighters were also reported injured, and a further three were hurt after their fire engine collided with another.  "Given the difficult terrain, we have not succeeded in getting the fire in Vila de Rei under control, but have only contained about 60 percent of it, despite a lull in the wind," Belo Costa said.  The army said in a statement it was dispatching 20 soldiers and machinery to open routes "to facilitate access" for the firefighters.  In a message, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa expressed his "solidarity with the hundreds fighting the scourge of the fires".  Two other forest fires reported on Saturday have since been brought under control.  While a number of small villages were evacuated as a precaution overnight, no additional measures were planned on Sunday. But that could change "if the situation deteriorates," Belo Costa said.  Five regions of central and southern Portugal were on maximum fire alert on Sunday because of the dry weather and winds.  The centre of Portugal is hilly and covered in dense forest and is regularly ravaged by fires, including the deadliest in the country's history where 114 people died in two separate blazes in June and October 2017.  Many of those who died were killed in their cars as they tried to flee the flames.  This year, several national highways have been closed to prevent a repeat of 2017 and a number of villages in the region have been evacuated as a precaution, the rescue service said.  In recent days, temperatures have soared across the region, with Castelo Branco reaching daytime high temperatures of 38.2 degrees Celsius, six degrees above the average.  Temperatures are expected to reach 40 degrees Celcius by Monday.  With no sign of rain in the forecast and winds still strong, the fire danger remains high.


aljazeera--2019-07-29--Six-year-old among three killed at California food festival

A gunman cut through a fence and opened fire on a crowd eating and listening to music at a popular food festival in California, killing three people, including a six-year-old boy, and wounding about 15 others before police quickly shot him dead on Sunday, authorities said.  On Monday, California police were searching for a suspected accomplice of the gunman, who authorities identified as 19-year-old Santino William Legan, according to US media.  The attacker appeared to randomly target people when fired with a rifle Sunday afternoon, the end of the three-day Gilroy Garlic Festival that attracts more than 100,000 people to the city known as the "Garlic Capital of the World", Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee said. Gilroy is located about 48km southeast of the city of San Jose.  The gunman sneaked in through a fence that borders a car park next to a creek. Police responded within a minute and killed the suspect, Smithee said.  Authorities declined to comment about the reports on the attacker's identity, but said they planned to hold a news conference later on Monday.  "My son had his whole life to live and he was only six," said Alberto Romero, the father of Stephen Romero, who was among those killed. "That's all I can say," Romero told San Francisco Bay Area news station KNTV.  The boy's grandmother, Maribel Romero, told Los Angeles station KABC-TV that she searched several hospitals before learning he had died. She said he was "always kind, happy and, you know, playful".  The other victims included a 13-year-old girl and a man in his 20s, police said on Monday.  The wounded were taken to multiple hospitals, and their conditions ranged from fair to critical, with some undergoing surgery. At least five were treated and released.  The Gilroy Garlic Festival features food, cooking contests and music. It's a decades-old staple in the agricultural city of 50,000, about 176km southeast of San Francisco. Festivalgoers pass through metal detectors and their bags are searched at the event.  The band TinMan was starting an encore Sunday when the shooting started. Singer Jack van Breen said he saw a man wearing a green shirt and grayish handkerchief around his neck fire into the food area with what looked like an assault rifle. He and other members of the band dove under the stage.  Van Breen, from nearby Santa Clara, said he heard someone shout: "Why are you doing this?" The reply: "Because I'm really angry."  The audience began screaming and running, and the five members of the band and others dove under the stage.  Bandmate Vlad Malinovsky said he heard a lot of shots and then it stopped. Later, law enforcement told those hiding to come out with their hands up.  Donna Carlson of Reno, Nevada, was helping a friend at a jewellery booth when "all of a sudden it was pop, pop, pop. And I said, 'I sure hope that's fireworks.'" She got on her hands and knees and hid behind a table until police told her it was safe to leave.  "We express our deepest sadness and sorrow for the families who lost a precious loved one in the horrific shooting last night in Gilroy, California," Trump said before an event at the White House.  In a tweet, California Governor Gavin Newsom called the bloodshed "nothing short of horrific" and said he was grateful for the police response.  Legan, the 19-year-old identified in news reports as the gunman, appeared to post a photograph from the festival on his Instagram account shortly before the shooting accompanied by disgruntled captions. The account only appeared to be a few days old, and was deactivated at some point on Monday morning.  "Ayyy garlic festival time," he wrote in the caption to the picture of people walking through the festival grounds. "Come get wasted on overpriced s***."  Another photograph posted on Sunday showed a sign warning of a high danger of forest fires. Its caption urged people to read "Might is Right", a racist and sexist treatise written by the pseudonymous author Ragnar Redbeard in the late 19th century. "Why overcrowd towns and pave more open space to make room for hordes of mestizos and Silicon Valley white twats?" the caption continued.  Video posted to social media showed people running in terror as shots rang out.  Evenny Reyes of Gilroy, 13, told the Mercury News in San Jose that she spent the day at the festival with her friends and relatives.  "We were just leaving and we saw a guy with a bandanna wrapped around his leg because he got shot. And there were people on the ground, crying," Reyes said. "There was a little kid hurt on the ground. People were throwing tables and cutting fences to get out."  Reyes said that she did not run at first because the gunshots sounded like fireworks.  "It started going for five minutes, maybe three. It was like the movies - everyone was crying, people were screaming," she said.


aljazeera--2019-08-13--Villages evacuated as wildfire rages on Greek island of Evia

A major wildfire on the Greek island of Evia has forced the evacuation of at least two villages and a monastery as smoke from the wind-fanned blaze blanketed the capital, Athens, further south.  Authorities on Tuesday evacuated some 500 residents from the villages of Kontodespoti and Makrimalli as the flames neared homes, officials said.  The monastery of Panagia Makrymallis was evacuated first as a precaution.  "There are flames all around and it's difficult to breathe ... house yards are on fire," Yiorgos Psathas, Dirfys-Messapia mayor, told state broadcaster ERT.  "We will order more evacuations if the need arises," he added.  More than 200 firefighters were battling the blaze backed by 75 fire trucks, five water-bombing helicopters and six planes. The crews face rugged terrain, hills and poor visibility complicating air operations.  "The flames are 20-30 metres high ... you can't even see the sun," Panos Agiannitis, a volunteer firefighter at the scene, told Athens municipal radio.  "I feared for my life ... you could feel the heat 250 metres away," he said. "The only way for this fire to be extinguished is when there's nothing left to burn."  No fatalities had been reported and the winds were expected to subside in the evening.  Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Greece's recently-elected prime minister, returned to Athens after cutting short a vacation on his home island of Crete.  The fire on Greece's second-largest island, located some 110km northeast of Athens, started at about 3am local time (00:00 GMT) at the side of a road and was quickly spread by strong winds through the dry vegetation, the semi-official news agency ANA said.  The winds blew the smoke from the blazing pine forest north towards the Magnesia region and south to the Attica Peninsula and Athens.  ANA said the pine forests on Evia are part of the "Natura 2000" European network of protected areas and habitats.  Greece has been hit by a spate of wildfires since the weekend amid gale-force winds and temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius.  On Monday, a major forest fire threatening homes in Peania, an eastern suburb of Athens, was brought under control. At least two houses were burned but there were no reports of injuries.  On Sunday, a fire on the small island of Elafonissos, in the Peloponnese region, was brought under control after a two-day battle.  Two more fires were doused on Saturday in Marathon, close to Mati, the coastal resort where in July last year 102 people died in Greece's worst fire disaster.


aljazeera--2019-08-21--Amazon burning Brazil reports record surge in forest fires

Amazon burning: Brazil reports record surge in forest fires

Fires raging in Brazil's Amazon rainforest have hit a record high number this year, according to new data from the country's space research agency, as concerns grow over President Jair Bolsonaro's management of the environment.  Nearly 73,000 fires were recorded between January and August, compared with 39,759 in all of 2018, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said on Monday. The surge marks an 83 percent increase over the same period last year and is the highest since INPE records began in 2013.  Satellite images spotted more than 9,500 new forest fires since Thursday alone, mostly in the Amazon basin, home to the world's largest tropical forest and seen as vital to slowing the pace of global warming.  Images showed the northernmost state of Roraima covered in dark smoke, while neighbouring Amazonas declared an emergency in the south of the state and in its capital Manaus over the blazes. Acre, on the border with Peru, has been on environmental alert since Friday due to the fires.  A daytime blackout on Monday in Sao Paulo caused by smoke brought in by strong winds from forest fires in Amazonas and the state of Rondonia, more than 2,700km away, prompted tens of thousands of people to take to social media and voice their concerns for the welfare of the Amazon rainforest.  The hashtag #prayforamazonia subsequently became a global Twitter trend, with some commentators criticising Bolsonaro for not doing enough to protect the environment.  The unprecedented surge in fires has occurred since Bolsonaro took office in January vowing to develop the Amazon region for farming and mining, ignoring international concern over increased deforestation.  Wildfires often occur in the dry season in Brazil, which ends in late October or early November, but they are also deliberately started in efforts to illegally clear forest for cattle ranching.  INPE said the large number of wildfires could not be attributed to the dry season or natural phenomena alone.  "There is nothing abnormal about the climate this year or the rainfall in the Amazon region, which is just a little below average," said INPE researcher Alberto Setzer.  Asked about the agency's findings, Bolsonaro brushed off widespread concerns, saying it was the time of the year of the "queimada" or burn, when farmers use fire to clear land.  "I used to be called Captain Chainsaw. Now I am Nero, setting the Amazon aflame. But it is the season of the queimada," he was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.  Environmental activists, meanwhile, pointed to a recent increase in deforestation as the trigger for the fires.  "What we are seeing is a consequence of the increase in deforestation seen in recent figures," said Ricardo Mello of WWF's Amazon Program.  Last month, INPE published preliminary data showing deforestation in Brazil's portion of the Amazon rainforest soared more than 88 percent in June compared with the same month a year ago, the second consecutive month of rising forest destruction under Bolsonaro.  Bolsonaro fired the director of INPE following the publication of the statistics, saying they were inaccurate and smearing Brazil's reputation abroad.  The Brazilian leader has faced mounting domestic criticism over his rhetoric regarding the environment, which activists blame for emboldening loggers, miners and farmers in the Amazon.  Bolsonaro has also come under increased pressure from international powers to protect Brazil's environment under the terms of a landmark free trade deal brokered over two decades between the European Union and South American bloc Mercosur - of which Brazil is a member - and agreed to last month.  The pact requires the Latin American giant to abide by the Paris climate accord, which Bolsonaro has threatened to pull out of, and also aims to end illegal deforestation, including in the Brazilian Amazon.  Amid the rise in deforestation, Norway and Germany halted tens of millions of dollars of Amazon protection subsidies to the Amazon Fund, accusing Brazil of turning its back on the fight against deforestation.  The move came after Bolsonaro's administration unilaterally changed the fund's governance structure and closed down the steering committee that selects the projects to back, making no formal proposal for the composition of a new committee.  Bolsonaro reacted angrily to the suspension of funding and said Brazil would not take any lessons from the donor countries.  "Isn't Norway that country that kills whales up there in the North Pole?" he told reporters. "Take that money and help Angela Merkel reforest Germany," he said.


aljazeera--2019-08-22--Brazils Amazon is burning Some families lost everything

Brazil's Amazon is burning: 'Some families lost everything'

For the past two weeks, Zonalia Santos and her neighbours have spent their days trying to save their houses and crops from the large forest fires in the western Brazilian state of Rondonia.  Santos lives in a settlement with 35 other families and although they managed to save their homes, she tells Al Jazeera "the fire touched almost everything else".  "We spent the whole day fighting the fire ourselves, but it took pastures, bushes, cacao crops, wood, nuts or acai berries," she says. Santos and her family depend on growing cacao to produce chocolate, from which they make about $100 a month. She says they were lucky that the fire did not get to their crops, but "some families lost everything".  "The damage is irreversible. At some point, when we were putting out the fire, we started crying because it is so sad that we protect so much to then see everything destroyed by a fire," she says.  Brazil's northern and western regions have experienced an 83 percent increase in the number of fires in the first eight months of 2019 compared with the same time period last year, according to Brazil's space research centre INPE. Its satellite system detected 72,843 fires in the region this year. The states of Amazonas, Rondonia, Acre, Para and Mato Grosso do Sul were some of the most affected, and most of the burning happens inside the Amazon rainforest. In just a week, 9,507 new fires were detected in the world's biggest rainforest, commonly referred to as the "planet's lung".  A thick cloud of smoke travelled across the continent, forcing flights to be cancelled and many to be hospitalised due to respiratory problems. In Sao Paulo, residents were surprised when they saw the sky turn dark in the middle of the day, although the city is 2,500km away from the origin of the fires. The state of Amazonas declared an emergency in its capital of Manaus on August 9 and the state of Acre, bordering Peru, also put out an environmental alert on August 16.  Online, thousands used #PrayForAmazonia to denounce the fires, which many say are consequences of President Jair Bolsonaro's anti-environmental policies.  On Wednesday, Bolsonaro responded to claims he was "setting the Amazon aflame", noting the country is going through its dry season and claiming the fires "could have been set by NGOs" to damage his administration, an accusation environmental groups rejected. A day later, he attempted to clarify his remarks, saying he did not claim non-governmental organisations started the fires, he only suspected it, and that his government lacked the resources to fight the blazes.  Ricardo Salles, the minister for the environment said on Twitter that "dry weather, wind and heat caused the increase in fires across the country".  Researchers from INPE, however, have rejected the government's claim, saying that this year's dry conditions in the Amazon were not "abnormal" and were not to blame for the enormous fires.  "The dry season creates favourable conditions for the use and spread of fire, but starting a fire is the work of humans, either deliberately or by accident," INPE researcher Alberto Setzer told Reuters news agency.  Ane Alencar, director of science in the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), tells Al Jazeera the record-high number of fires are actually connected with an increase in deforestation.  "We are not going to an extreme event of drought at the moment, we are seeing a very normal dry season. So what's different is that we are seeing more deforestation and that causes more fire because the forest is more fragile, fragmented and sensible," she tells Al Jazeera over the phone.  According to the Brazilian newspaper Folha do Progresso, the fires started on August 10 when an association of farmers in the state of Para announced a so-called "day of fire". The idea, according to the publication, was to coordinate a number of simultaneous fires to show Bolsonaro "they are ready to work". On that day, 124 new fires were registered by INPE and the next day 203 more were flagged.  The Public Prosecutor in the State of Para has opened an investigation into the incident.  Bolsonaro has not shied away from marketing his pro-business vision for the Amazon, saying multiple times he supports opening the rainforest for mining and agriculture exploration. He is also outspoken about his anti-indigenous views, having said he would not "demarcate one centimetre more of native reserves" during his presidency.  "The situation here is terrible, from fires to invasions of indigenous lands and I blame the government for this," says Ivaneide Bandeira, who is part of the Kaninde Association, which works to protect the environment and native groups in the state of Rondonia.  She tells Al Jazeera the "weather is constantly dark", "hospitals are filled with people with respiratory problems" and "all indigenous reserves in the state have been affected". She says she also wakes up in the middle of the night struggling to breathe.  "The situations is a thousand times worse than in prior years, you can't even compare it," she says. "The criminals are strengthened by this government's words that they can burn, deforest and destroy the Amazon, while the administration weakens environmental protections and authorities."  The Karipuna indigenous reserve is one of the many affected. Adriano Karipuna, who is part of the Karipuna tribe's leadership, tells Al Jazeera that many of his relatives are suffering from "irritated throats, red eyes, cough and even the flu" because of all the smoke.  "My village still depends on hunting and fishing, now all the animals are running away and if we continue to lose trees, our river will eventually die," he says.  The most recent fires have entered at least 32 natural reserves and 36 indigenous lands, according to INPE. In the last few days, occasional rains gave some rest to the residents in nearby towns but the fear is far from over, says Santos in the state of Rondonia  Santos and her neighbours continue to monitor their land for any piece of incandescent wood or flying sparks that could start their nightmare once again.  "We can't breath because of the smoke and we can't sleep because we are afraid. Everywhere else is on fire, there is nowhere else to go," Santos says. "It's such a feeling of revolt because we know someone is to blame behind this."


aljazeera--2019-08-24--Amazon fires Bolsonaro sends army after EU threat on trade deal

Amazon fires: Bolsonaro sends army after EU threat on trade deal

Following a global chorus of concern and condemnation, Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has pledged to mobilise the army to help combat fires that have been ravaging large parts of the Amazon rainforest, while his administration launched a diplomatic charm offensive to try to mend bridges overseas.  The fires in the Brazilian Amazon, which accounts for more than half of the world's largest rainforest, have surged in number by 83 percent this year, according to government data, destroying vast swaths of a vital bulwark against global climate change.  "Forest fires happen every year in Brazil, but it was the sheer scale this year that shocked the world. The so-called world's lungs are on fire," Al Jazeera's Daniel Schweimler said from Rondonia, one of the states worst affected by the fires.  "Criticism first from within Brazil, and then internationally, forced Bolsonaro to respond," Schweimler said.  "He has been accused by many of creating the conditions he is now trying to control."  That viewpoint is supported by environmental organisation Greenpeace, which accuses the Brazilian authorities of not doing enough.  "At the moment, if you burn the forest, you are backed up by a president and then you do exactly as you want to do because you know nothing will happen to you," Olivier Salge, Greenpeace Amazon campaigner, told Al Jazeera.  "We have seen statistically that when there is law enforcement, fires and deforestation go down. When it isn't there, they go up," he said.  In an attempt to fight the fires and ease the criticism aimed at him, Bolsonaro, who initially accused non-governmental organisations of setting the forest on fire without providing any evidence, said in a televised address he had authorised the use of troops to fight the fires and stop illegal deforestation in the Amazon.  But the former military officer attributed the scale of the fires to drier-than-average weather and insisted on the need for economic development of the Amazon to improve the lives of its 20 million inhabitants.  "Forest fires happen all over the world, so this is no reason to impose international sanctions. Brazil will continue to be as it is now a country that is friendly with everyone and is responsible with protection its forest," Bolsonaro said in a televised speech on Friday.  Environmentalists have warned that his controversial plans for more agriculture and mining in the region will speed up deforestation.  "We have to give the population the opportunity to develop and my government is working for that, with zero tolerance for crime - and that is no different for the environment," Bolsonaro added.  Polls show Brazilians overwhelmingly oppose his policy on the environment and as he spoke to the nation, residents in large cities across Brazil banged on pots and pans in a traditional Latin American form of protest.  That criticism was echoed by European leaders, who on Friday threatened to tear up a trade deal with South America, reflecting growing international anger at Brazil as the record number of fires in the Amazon rainforest intensified an unfolding environmental crisis.  French President Emmanuel Macron called for G7 leaders to discuss the environmental crisis in Brazil at a summit this weekend in the French coastal resort of Biarritz. France and Ireland threatened to oppose an EU trade deal struck in June with the regional Mercosur bloc of countries including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, following Brazil's response.  Hours ahead of the G7 meeting, Macron said on Twitter "our house is on fire", calling for members of the summit to act.  Images of fires raging in the Amazon broadcast around the globe sparked protests outside Brazilian embassies from Mexico City and Lima to London and Paris.  In the Cypriot capital Nicosia, a sign tied to the railings of Brazil's diplomatic mission read: "The Amazon belongs to Earth, not to the Brazilian president."  US President Donald Trump - whose sceptical views on climate change Bolsonaro shares - called the Brazilian president to offer help, if needed, in dealing with the wildfires.  "I told him if the United States can help with the Amazon rainforest fires, we stand ready to assist!" Trump tweeted on Friday.  The wildfires will be one of the topics at the summit of G7 leaders in France this weekend, where Macron has called for leaders to sign a charter to protect biodiversity. The French leader said an "ecocide" was taking place in the Amazon that required an international response.  Irish leader Leo Varadkar, the first who said the EU trade deal with Brazil should be cancelled over the fires, called Bolsonaro's attempts to blame the fires on environmental groups "Orwellian".  "There is no way that Ireland will vote for the EU-Mercosur Free Trade Agreement if Brazil does not honour its environmental commitments," Varadkar said in a statement.  The EU-Mercosur deal took 20 years to negotiate, but will not be officially ratified for at least another two years.  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted that the fires were "not only heartbreaking, they are an international crisis," while a spokeswoman said Johnson would use the summit to call for a renewed focus on protecting nature.  The French president's office also accused Bolsonaro of lying when he downplayed concerns over climate change at the G20 summit in June.  Brazilian business leaders also warned the backlash over Brazil's environmental record could sink its efforts to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a Paris-based club of 36 developed nations whose imprimatur is required by many institutional investors.  Stung by the international outcry, Brazil distributed a 12-page circular, seen by Reuters, to foreign embassies, outlining data and statistics defending the government's reputation on the environment.  Having first dismissed the fires as natural, then blaming non-governmental organisations without evidence for lighting them, Bolsonaro appeared to adopt a more serious approach on Friday following the international outcry, summoning top cabinet members for an afternoon meeting to tailor a response.  Agriculture Minister Tereza Cristina Dias insisted that Brazil was "taking care" of the Amazon, and that international concerns over the fires needed to cool down.  "The news is worrying, but I think we have to lower the temperature. The Amazon is important, Brazil knows that, and Brazil is taking care of the Amazon," she told reporters.  The Brazilian space agency INPE has registered 72,843 fires this year, the highest number since records began in 2013. More than 9,500 have been spotted by satellites over the past week.  Although fires are a regular and natural occurrence during the dry season at this time of year, environmentalists blamed the jump on farmers clearing land for pasture.  Bolsonaro has repeatedly said he believed Brazil should open up the Amazon to business interests, allowing mining, agricultural and logging companies to exploit its natural resources.  On Thursday, Bolsonaro admitted for the first time that farmers could be behind some of the fires but he responded angrily to what he saw as foreign interference.  Some foreign donors - including the biggest, Norway - have slashed their funding to the Amazon Fund, designed to curb deforestation in the region, in protest to changes introduced by Brazil that blocked its operations.  "These countries that send money here, they don't send it out of charity ... They send it with the aim of interfering with our sovereignty," Bolsonaro said.  Alexandre Antonelli, director of science at Britain's Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, urged that import sanctions be imposed on Brazil because of the fires.  "Immediate action is necessary to extinguish the current fires and prevent future ones," the Brazilian scientist said.


aljazeera--2019-08-24--New fires in Brazils Amazon as army mobilises to fight blazes

New fires in Brazil's Amazon as army mobilises to fight blazes

Hundreds of new fires are raging in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, according to official data, as six of the nine states in the region requested military assistance to combat the record blazes.  The states of Para, Rondonia, Roraima, Tocantins, Acre and Mato Grosso requested the army's help, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles announced on Saturday, one day after President Jair Bolsonaro authorised the military to step in.  Data from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) said some 1,663 new fires were ignited between Thursday and Friday. More than 1,200 of those fires were in the Amazon region.  Official figures recorded 78,383 forest fires in Brazil this year, an 84 percent rise over last year's figure. More than half of those were in the Amazon region.  Environmentalists have said farmers clearing land for pasture were responsible for the uptick in fires.  The Amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest and its protection is seen as vital to the fight against climate change because of the vast amounts of carbon dioxide it absorbs.  Some 44,000 troops will be available for "unprecedented" operations to put out the fires, Defence Minister Fernando Azevedo said.  He added that the military's first mission will be the deployment of 700 troops to the area around Porto Velho, capital of Rondonia, where the military will use two C-130 Hercules aircraft capable of dumping up to 12,000 litres of water on fires per journey.  On Friday, multiple fires were seen were raging across a vast area of Rondonia, billowing huge plumes of smoke into the air, AFP news agency reported.  Several residents of Porto Velho said what appeared to be light clouds hanging over the city of half a million people was actually smoke from the blazes.  The Brazilian military operations came after widespread criticism of Bolsonaro's handling of the crisis.  Azevedo defended the government response, saying that it was "very fast".  "It shows the concern of Bolsonaro's government about this issue," he said.  The defence minister noted US President Trump's offer, on Twitter, to help Brazil fight the fires but said there had been no further contact on the matter.  "Any help is welcome in respect to the fires," he added.  Alfredo Sirkis, executive director of think-tank Brazil Climate Center and a founder of Brazil's Green Party, said while he supported military involvement, he doubted that anyone would be able to put out the fires.  "Once you have a huge forest fire like that, especially when you don't have all the kind of forest fire-fighting equipment that you have in places like the US or Portugal, it's difficult to extinguish," he told Reuters.  "They'll only be extinguished by themselves depending on the weather conditions."  Environmental specialists say the fires are coming amid increasing deforestation in the Amazon region, which in July took place at a rate four times that of the same month in 2018, according to data from INPE.  Bolsonaro has previously attacked the institute, describing its data as lies and engineering the sacking of its head.  The blazes have stirred outrage globally and are a major topic of concern at the G7 meeting in Biarritz, France. The growing crisis also threatens to torpedo a trade deal between the European Union and South American countries, including Brazil, that took 20 years to negotiate.  Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, told reporters at the G7 that it was hard to imagine European countries ratifying a trade pact with the Mercosur bloc as long as Brazil fails to curb the fires ravaging the Amazon.  French President Emmanuel Macron, who has taken the lead in pressing his Brazilian counterpart over the fires, had earlier accused Bolsonaro of lying to him about Brazil's stance on climate change.  In an escalating war of words between the two leaders, Bolsonaro denounced what he calls Macron's "colonialist mentality".  "There are forest fires all over the world, and this cannot be used as a pretext for possible international sanctions," Bolsonaro said on Friday.  Earlier in the week, he had accused non-governmental organisations of deliberately starting the fires after their funding was cut.  Brazil's powerful agriculture sector - which strongly supports Bolsonaro - has expressed concerns over the president's rhetoric, fearing boycotts of their products in key markets.  The Folha de S Paulo newspaper, in an editorial on Saturday, the warned that Bolsonaro's "bravado" had worsened the crisis caused by accelerating deforestation.  "The damage to [Brazil's] image is done and it could have important trade repercussions," it said, adding: "Nationalistic bravado will not win the game this time."


aljazeera--2019-08-24--The Amazon is burning What you need to know

The Amazon is burning: What you need to know

The Amazon is being shrouded in plumes of smoke as fires rage across parts of the rainforest, imperilling the so-called "lungs of the planet" and the vast array of life to which it is home.  Visible from outer space, the smoke billows have prompted international alarm, calls for action and much finger-pointing over what, or who, is responsible for the burning.  Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, in particular, has come under intense scrutiny for his controversial stewardship of Brazil's majority share of the rainforest.  Al Jazeera answers some of the major questions being asked about the crisis in the Amazon, one of Earth's greatest natural treasures.  The fires are burning across a range of states in Brazil's section of the Amazon rainforest.  Northerly Roraima down through Amazonas, Acre, Rondonia and Mato Grosso do Sul have all been badly affected.  Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE) spotted more than 9,500 new forest fires in Brazil since August 15 alone, while atmospheric monitoring agencies have tracked smoke from the Amazon region drifting thousands of kilometres across the Latin American giant to the Atlantic coast and Sao Paulo, briefly turning daytime in Brazil's biggest city to night on Monday.  Amazonas, Brazil's largest state, declared a state of emergency on August 9 while Acre has been on environmental alert since August 16 due to the fires.  Several other countries in the Amazon region, including Bolivia and Peru, which both border Brazil, have also seen a surge in fires this year, according to INPE data.  The INPE recorded nearly 73,000 fires in Brazil between January and August this year - the highest since INPE records began in 2013 and a more than 80 percent bump on the figure for the same period last year. Most of them were in the Amazon.  Meanwhile, as of August 16, a NASA analysis suggested that "total fire activity across the Amazon basin has been close to the average in comparison to the past 15 years". NASA noted that the Amazon spreads across several countries.  It also added, "though activity appears to be above average in the states of Amazonas and Rondonia, it has so far appeared below average in Mato Grosso and Para".  Fires are a regular and natural occurrence in the Amazon at this time of year, during the dry season.  But environmentalists and non-governmental organisations have attributed the record number of fires to farmers setting the forest alight to clear land for pasture and to loggers razing the forest for its wood, with INPE itself ruling out natural phenomena being responsible for the surge.  Critics say far-right President Bolsonaro's weakening of Brazil's environmental agency, IBAMA, and push to open up the Amazon region for more farming and mining has emboldened such actors and created a climate of impunity for those felling the forest illegally.  Recent evidence appears to bear that out with preliminary data showing deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is skyrocketing under Bolsonaro's watch.  The rate of forest destruction soared more than 278 percent in July compared with the same month a year ago, according to research by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute. Previously, INPE pegged the rate of deforestation in June at 88 percent higher than during the corresponding month in 2018.  "These statistics speak to who is in power and what he (Bolsonaro) is doing to undermine environmental protection ... and open the floodgates to illegal and destructive behaviour," said Christian Poirier, Brazil programme director for NGO Amazon Watch.  Bolsonaro's government, meanwhile, has offered a range of explanations for the blazes - including increased drought and the president himself making unfounded claims that NGOs had started the fires in an attempt to undermine his administration after it slashed their funding.  On Friday, Bolsonaro said he had authorised the use of troops to help contain the blazes and stop illegal deforestation, but he also blamed the weather for the fires.  The Amazon is the largest tropical forest in the world, covering more than five million square kilometres across nine countries: Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.  It acts as an enormous carbon sink, storing up to an estimated 100 years worth of carbon emissions produced by humans, and is seen as vital to slowing the pace of global warming.  "The Amazon is the most significant climate stabiliser we have, it creates 20 percent of the air we breathe and it also holds 20 percent of the fresh flowing water on the planet," Poirier said.  Put simply, he added, preserving the forest is of "critical importance" for both the region it encompasses and the rest of the world.  But in the last half-century alone, nearly 20 percent of the forest has disappeared.  Scientists have warned that if tree loss in the Amazon were to pass a certain "tipping point", somewhere between 25 and 40 percent, deforestation could start to feed on itself and lead to the demise of the forest within a matter of decades.  "One of the cornerstones of climatic stability on our planet is in peril and the consequences of this are almost too large to fathom," Poirier said. "The future of our civilisation depends on its integrity."  The Amazon has been inhabited by humans for at least 11,000 years and is home to more than 30 million people - about two-thirds of whom live in cities carved out of the greenery.  Among those living in the region are about one million indigenous people who are divided into some 400 tribes., according to indigenous rights group Survival International.  Most live in villages, though some remain nomadic, with each tribe possessing its distinct language and culture, both of which are traditionally intimately intertwined with the surrounding environment.  Jonathan Mazower, a spokesman for Survival International, said the tribes were "dependent on their forests for everything, and have managed and looked after them for millennia".  "[But] many are seeing their lands burned in front of their eyes, and with it their livelihood, source of food, medicines, and their very homes," he added.  Poirier agreed, saying the fires pose an "affront" to the "safety and integrity" of their way of life.  "Indigenous people are on the frontline of this struggle - the work they do to protect the forest is so vital and their connection to the forest is so important to their cultures," he added.  "The potential is here for not just environmental devastation, but also cultural genocide."  In addition to the human presence within the Amazon, the forest also houses 10 percent of all known wildlife species, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), with a "new" species of animal or plant discovered in the rainforest every three days on average.  The response to the fires is predominantly with a chorus of concern and condemnation of Bolsonaro's environmental stewardship.  French President Emmanuel Macron and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said separately on Friday they would move to veto a landmark European Union trade deal brokered with South American bloc Mercosur unless Brazil takes action to protect the rainforest.  The pact requires the Latin American giant to abide by the Paris climate accord, which Bolsonaro has threatened to leave, and also aims to end illegal deforestation, including in the Brazilian Amazon.  Macron also called for the fires to be front and centre of the agenda for this weekend's G7 summit, branding the blazes an "international crisis".  "Our house is burning. Literally. The Amazon rainforest - the lungs which produce 20 percent of our planet's oxygen - is on fire. It is an international crisis. Members of the G7 Summit, let's discuss this emergency first order in two days!" Macron tweeted on Thursday.  This was echoed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who said the Amazon fires posed an "acute emergency" and belonged on the G7's agenda, despite Brazil not being a member of the group.  However, Macron's comments earned a swift rebuke from Bolsonaro, who called the issue an "internal matter" and said the French leader's suggestion evoked "a colonialist mentality that is out of place in the 21st century".  The spat came after Norway and Germany earlier this month halted millions of dollars of Amazon protection subsidies to the Amazon Fund, accusing Brazil of turning its back on the fight against deforestation.  Meanwhile, social media users around the world have latched on to #PrayForAmazonia and #PrayForAmazon, pushing the topic towards the top of Twitter's global trends earlier this week.  Public demonstrations are planned in Brazil's major cities for Friday, mirroring protests held earlier in the day in several cities around the world.  "The outpouring of concern, grief and anger is unprecedented - what this is creating is a lasting impression for people that the Amazon is absolutely essential to our future and we all have a responsibility to protect it, contrary to what Bolsonaro may say," Poirier said.  "But we can't allow ourselves to fall into despair, there's no other way, we have to act - we have a responsibility to ourselves, to future generations and to other beings on this planet, are of which are suffering today as a result of this chaos."


aljazeera--2019-08-25--Kashmir border fence forest fires endanger wildlife

Kashmir border fence, forest fires endanger wildlife

It is not just humans who are suffering in the fight over Kashmir territory.  Kashmir's dense forests are home to many species of wild cats, bears, deer, goats, monkeys and birds.  But border fencing and forest fires caused by shelling are putting the wildlife in the Himalayan region at risk.  Al Jazeera's Osama Bin Javaid reports from the Line of Control (LoC) in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.


aljazeera--2019-08-26--Macron G7 nations close to agreement on tackling Amazon fires

Macron: G7 nations close to agreement on tackling Amazon fires

French President Emmanuel Macron has said the leaders of the world's major industrialised nations were close to an agreement on how to help fight the Amazon forest fires and try to repair the devastation.  A record number of fires are ravaging the rainforest, many of them in Brazil, drawing international concern because of the Amazon's importance to the global environment.  "There's a real convergence to say: 'Let's all agree to help those countries hit by these fires'," he told reporters in Biarritz, which is hosting the annual summit of leaders from the Group of Seven nations, on Sunday.  He said the G7 countries - comprising the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Britain and Canada - were finalising a possible deal on "technical and financial help".  Macron shunted the Amazon fires to the top of the summit agenda after declaring them a global emergency and kicked off discussions about the disaster at a welcome dinner for fellow leaders on Saturday.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said her country and others will talk to Brazil about reforestation in the Amazon once fires there have been extinguished.  "Of course [this is] Brazilian territory, but we have a question here of the rainforests that is really a global question," she said.  "The lung of our whole Earth is affected, and so we must find common solutions."  US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had earlier offered their countries' assistance.     Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Sunday he would accept international help to combat wildfires raging in the country's southeast as he suspended his election campaign to deal with the crisis.  A European Union official, who declined to be named, said the G7 leaders had agreed to do everything they could to help tackle the fires, giving Macron a mandate to contact all the countries in the Amazon region to see what was needed.  "It was the easiest part of the talks," the official said.  Last week, Macron accused Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's government of not doing enough to protect the area and of lying about its environmental commitments.  His comments earned a swift rebuke from Bolsonaro, who called it an "internal issue" and said the French leader's suggestion evoked "a colonialist mentality that is out of place in the 21st century".  On Sunday, Macron said world powers needed to be ready to help with reforestation but acknowledged there were different views over this aspect, without going into details.  "There are several sensitivities which were raised around the table because all of that also depends on the Amazon countries," he said, adding that the world's biggest rainforest was vital to the future of the planet.  "While respecting sovereignty, we must have a goal of reforestation and we must help each country to develop economically," he said.  On Sunday, Brazil deployed two C-130 Hercules aircraft to douse fires devouring parts of the rainforest.  Dozens of firefighters were also deployed to help put out the blaze, while Brazil's Justice Minister Sergio Moro also gave the green light for the deployment of security forces to tackle illegal deforestation in the region.  The Amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest and its protection is seen as vital to the fight against climate change because of the vast amounts of carbon dioxide it absorbs.


aljazeera--2019-09-19--Malaysia Indonesia shut thousands of schools as haze worsens

Malaysia, Indonesia shut thousands of schools as haze worsens

Thousands of schools have been ordered closed across Malaysia and Indonesia on Thursday, affecting at least 1.7 million students, officials said, as toxic haze from rampant forest fires in Indonesia sent air quality plummeting.  Nearly 2,500 schools were ordered to suspend classes in Malaysia - including nearly 300 in the smog-hit capital of Kuala Lumpur - over soaring health concerns sparked by toxic haze from out-of-control blazes in Indonesia's Sumatra and Borneo islands.  In the Malaysian city of Kuching, on Borneo island, the air pollution index recorded levels of 267 as of 06:00 GMT, earning a grade of "Very Unhealthy" and putting it among the most polluted areas in the world, according to the World Air Quality Index. Malaysia's environment ministry also categorises it as "very unhealthy".  In Indonesia, hundreds of schools in hard-hit Riau province on Sumatra island were also set to close on Thursday - with 800 already closed in one district alone - while about 1,300 were closed in its Central Kalimantan province on Borneo.  The closures affected at least 1.7 million students in Malaysia. It was not clear how many students were forced to stay home in neighbouring Indonesia.  Jakarta is deploying thousands of security forces and water-bombing aircraft to tackle the blazes, mostly started by illegal fires set to clear land for plantations.  The fires send smog across Southeast Asia annually, but this year has been the worst since 2015 and has added to concerns about wildfire outbreaks worldwide exacerbating global warming.  Thursday's school shutdown marked the first mass closure in Kuala Lumpur as air quality deteriorated to "unhealthy" or "very unhealthy" levels on an official index in many parts of peninsular Malaysia, to the east of Sumatra, with the capital's skyline was shrouded by dense smog.  Malaysia's Sarawak state, on Borneo, was also smothered in toxic haze, as the fires hiked diplomatic tensions.  Borneo is divided between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.  A growing number of Malaysians were suffering health problems due to the haze, with authorities saying there had been a sharp increase in outpatients at government hospitals.  Air quality was in the "unhealthy" range across Singapore on Thursday morning, according to the National Environment Agency, as the city state's environment minister called it a "major setback" in the fight against climate change.  "The forest fires in Indonesia and the resulting haze have affected the health and well-being of people in Indonesia and the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region," Singapore's environment chief Masagos Zulkifli said on social media.  "It is regretful that so many lives and livelihoods have been impacted.  "The amount of carbon emissions generated from the fires will present a major setback to the global fight against climate change," he added.  The haze crisis comes as Singapore gears up to host a Formula One motor race on Sunday.  Poor visibility closed several airports in the Indonesian part of Borneo and scores of flights have already been diverted and cancelled in the region due to the smog.  Authorities have tried to induce rain through cloud seeding in a bid to extinguish the fires.  But the onset of the rainy season, which usually starts in October, could be the only thing able to douse the blazes.


aljazeera--2019-10-07--After two-month inferno, rains help douse Bolivian forest fires

Heavy rains over recent days in the Bolivian Amazon have helped put out forest fires that have raged for two months across the land-locked South American nation, charring more than four million hectares (9.8 million acres) of land, local authorities said on Monday.  The storms helped Bolivia's military contain blazes in the region of Chiquitania, home to large areas of dry forests and indigenous communities that have lived in them for centuries.  "Satellite images no longer detect burning or reactivated fires," said Cinthia Asin, an official for environmental issues for the provincial government of Santa Cruz, a farming province in eastern Bolivia hard-hit by the fires.  Indigenous groups have marched through the province, while in the capital city on Friday hundreds of thousands of people protested against what they said had been a slow response to the fires by the national government.  The national weather service also told Reuters News Agency that in Chiquitania no fires were registered on Monday. However, it warned that strong sun and high temperatures were expected to return to the region over coming days, raising the risk of fires ahead.  Armed forces commander Williams Kaliman said there was no immediate plan to withdraw about 5,000 troops that had been sent to battle the worst fires Bolivia has had over the last two decades.  Critics say deforestation, caused by the government's policy of increasing farming, is to blame for the disaster.  The government says it has spent more than $20m in its effort to douse the flames. Complaints about the government's handling of the crisis have dented the popularity of Bolivia's leftist president, Evo Morales.  In neighbouring Brazil, the number of fires in the Amazon rainforest receded in September amid improved weather conditions and containment efforts by the country's military.


aljazeera--2019-10-15--Hellish scenes as wildfires engulf Lebanon

Beirut, Lebanon - Firefighters in Lebanon on Tuesday battled massive wildfires across the country, before moderate rains in the evening brought them under control in most affected areas.  With more than 100 blazes erupting from north to south over the past two days, Raymond Khattar, the director-general of Lebanon's Civil Defence, described the forest fires as the worst to have hit the country in decades.  At least one man died from suffocation after battling a fire in the city of Aley for several hours. Lebanese media also reported that a woman had lost her life after being run over by a fire truck in the southern coastal city of Sidon.     The Lebanese Red Cross announced that they had treated more than 70 people at a field hospital in Damour, mostly for smoke inhalation, minor burns and other light injuries.  The areas most heavily affected were in the Chouf and Metn regions, in the lush Mount Lebanon mountain range.  Aided by strong winds and unseasonably high temperatures, the fires ate their way through dense forest near the towns of Meshref and Damour in Chouf and swept into the residential areas overnight on Monday, leading many families to flee their homes.  Videos shared on social media showed hellish scenes of fires sweeping along roadways, releasing hails of embers onto onlookers.  The Lebanese state's ability to combat the rapidly spreading fires quickly came into question, especially given that three aircraft specialised in fighting blazes remained grounded at the airport of the capital, Beirut, on Tuesday.  The three Sikorsky S-70 model helicopters were donated to the Lebanese state in 2009, taking part in firefighting missions for several years before falling into disrepair. They have remained non-operational for at least five years due to the failure of successive governments to fund their maintenance.  At the same time, dozens of Civil Defence teams were fighting the fires with little technical capabilities, even enlisting the use of anti-riot vehicles mounted with water cannons.  As criticism mounted on social media, Lebanese officials sought international assistance to tackle the fires. Two Cypriot aircraft began helping Lebanese Army helicopters in firefighting operations as of Tuesday morning, while a further two a planes supplied by Jordan arrived at Beirut airport on Tuesday night.  Greece also deployed two aircraft that were imminently expected in Beirut.  Despite the respite brought by rains on Tuesday evening, there are fears that the blazes will reignite as the weather forecast for Wednesday predicts strong winds up to 45 kilometres (28 miles) an hour and temperatures of up to 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit).  George Mitri, director of the land and natural resources programme at the University of Balamand, said this meant the already-severe devastation would continue.  Before the recent fires, Lebanon had already lost three million trees in 2019 alone from forest fires, equivalent to all trees planted in reforestation initiatives over the last 15 years, Mitri said.  That figure equated to about 1,300 hectares (3,212 acres) lost this year, which is already above average. But Lebanon had lost at least another 1,200 hectares (2,965 acres) in just the last three days, Mitri added, meaning that the country had now lost double the yearly average.  "We have a new record in the extent of burned areas and the number of trees," he told Al Jazeera. "It's absolutely catastrophic to our national biodiversity."


aljazeera--2019-10-16--Lebanon wildfires: Hellish scenes in mountains south of Beirut

Beirut, Lebanon - Firefighters in Lebanon on Tuesday battled massive wildfires in several areas in the country, before moderate rains in the evening brought them under control in most affected areas.  With more than 100 blazes erupting from north to south over the past two days, Raymond Khattar, the director-general of Lebanon's Civil Defence, described the forest fires as the worst to have hit the country in decades.  At least one man died from suffocation after battling a fire in the city of Aley for several hours. Lebanese media also reported that a woman had lost her life after being run over by a fire truck in the southern coastal city of Sidon.  The Lebanese Red Cross announced that they had treated more than 70 people at a field hospital in Damour, mostly for smoke inhalation, minor burns and other light injuries.  The areas most heavily affected were in the Chouf and Metn regions, in the lush Mount Lebanon mountain range east and southeast of the capital, Beirut.  Aided by strong winds and unseasonably high temperatures, the fires ate their way through dense forest near the towns of Meshref and Damour in Chouf and swept into the residential areas overnight on Monday, leading many families to flee their homes.  Videos shared on social media showed hellish scenes of fires sweeping along roadways, releasing hails of embers onto onlookers.  The Lebanese state's ability to combat the rapidly spreading fires quickly came into question, especially given that three aircraft specialised in fighting blazes remained grounded at the airport of Beirut, on Tuesday.  The three Sikorsky S-70 model helicopters were donated to the Lebanese state in 2009, taking part in firefighting missions for several years before falling into disrepair. They have remained non-operational for at least five years due to the failure of successive governments to fund their maintenance.  At the same time, dozens of Civil Defence teams were fighting the fires with little technical capabilities, even enlisting the use of anti-riot vehicles mounted with water cannons.  As criticism mounted on social media, Lebanese officials sought international assistance to tackle the fires. Two Cypriot aircraft began helping Lebanese Army helicopters in firefighting operations as of Tuesday morning, while a further two planes supplied by Jordan arrived at Beirut airport on Tuesday night.  Greece also deployed two aircraft that were imminently expected in Beirut.  Despite the respite brought by rains on Tuesday evening, there are fears that the blazes will reignite as the weather forecast for Wednesday predicts strong winds up to 45 kilometres (28 miles) an hour and temperatures of up to 35 Celsius (95 Fahrenheit).  George Mitri, director of the land and natural resources programme at the University of Balamand, said this meant the already-severe devastation would continue.  Before the recent fires, Lebanon had already lost three million trees in 2019 alone from forest fires, equivalent to all trees planted in reforestation initiatives over the last 15 years, Mitri said.  That figure equated to about 1,300 hectares (3,212 acres) lost this year, which is already above average. But Lebanon had lost at least another 1,200 hectares (2,965 acres) in just the last three days, Mitri added, meaning that the country had now lost double the yearly average.  "We have a new record in the extent of burned areas and the number of trees," he told Al Jazeera. "It's absolutely catastrophic to our national biodiversity."


bbc--2019-02-10--New Zealand wildfire Thousands of people evacuated near Nelson

New Zealand wildfire: Thousands of people evacuated near Nelson

Thousands of people have been evacuated from a New Zealand town as firefighters battle a wildfire stoked by winds in the country's South Island.  The blaze, which began six days ago near the city of Nelson, is now threatening the town of Wakefield.  A state of emergency has been declared and about 3,000 people have fled their homes in the district of Tasman.  Strong winds were expected, and officials warned that Sunday could be a "critical danger point" for the fire.  Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she hoped "the weather plays ball".  The blaze is thought to be the worst forest fire in New Zealand since 1955.  Nelson MP Nick Smith said the entire region was a "tinderbox" and its 70,000 residents were "on edge."  Twenty-three helicopters and two planes have been deployed to tackle the blaze. Rain forecast for the area on Tuesday is expected to miss the fire zone.  Fires of this size are unusual for New Zealand, with local media calling it the worst bushfire in 50 years.


bbc--2019-04-17--Italian students BBQ results in 13m fine for forest fire

Italian students' BBQ results in €13m fine for forest fire

Two students blamed for a large forest fire in the Italian region of Como have each been fined €13.5m (£11.7m).  The men, both aged 22, were barbecuing at a mountain forest home belonging to one of their grandfathers when the fire broke out on 30 December last year.  The huge bill for the two students was calculated by local officials based on a formula used to determine the extent of damage caused by the fire.  One of the students told Italian media they were "scapegoats" for the blaze.  Speaking to Italy's La Stampa newspaper, one of the university students said he was "deeply sorry" - but said there were multiple sources of the outbreak.  "We are the scapegoats of a fire that cannot be explained," he said, adding: "We are the real victims of this story.  "[We] immediately alerted the fire brigade and threw ourselves at the flames to try and put them out."  Prosecutors, however, traced the path of the fire back to the property and said it had been started by embers from the barbecue, coupled with extremely dry conditions. The two young men were found jointly responsible, along with the owner of the property.  The fire lasted for several days, destroying some 1,000 hectares of forest on Monte Berlinghera - the damage caused to some 100 hectares was said to be irreversible.  The fine of €13,542,000 was calculated by forest police based on an established formula under local laws.  La Stampa reports that the regulation calls for a fine of €118–€593 per square metre. The damage the two men were liable for was calculated at some 6,840 square metres, the newspaper said - resulting in a fine of between €8m and €40m.  A lawyer for one of the students told the newspaper that any sentence should be meaningful and have a point.  "What is the sense to impose an administrative sanction... already knowing that the two boys, still students, cannot pay it?" she said.  However, the prosecutor told local news outlet Il Giorno Como that the fine was "a signal that we need to push people to greater responsibility in protecting the environment".  Italian media reports also suggest that the pair could be held liable in separate actions by property owners who were affected by the fire.


bbc--2019-04-24--Europe wildfires Norway police evacuate hundreds in Sokndal

Europe wildfires: Norway police evacuate hundreds in Sokndal

Hundreds of people have had to leave their homes in Norway as emergency services try to extinguish forest fires raging in the south of the country.  Some 148 homes were evacuated around the town of Sokndal, where fires have been burning since Tuesday.  Police say the fires are still out of control and warn that heavy winds could help them to spread.  April is very early for forest fires in Norway, and experts have warned of a dramatic increase across the continent.  This month alone, wildfires have broken out in Sweden, Germany and the UK.  Fires in Europe "are way above the average" for this time of year, an official at the EU's European Forest Fire Information System (Effis) told the BBC.  "The season is drastically worse than those of the last decade."  The official added that a "very dry winter in most of Europe" and persistent drought had contributed to the rise in forest fires, and that the "long term forecast is not promising for an improvement".  Police in south-west Norway are still unsure what started the fires, which have burned some 7.5 sq km (2.9 square miles) of land near Sokndal, 100km (62 miles) south-east of the coastal city of Stavanger.  As well as evacuating residents, rescue services spent the night soaking land in surrounding areas in an effort to stop the fire from spreading.  But they fear that expected winds of nine to 11 metres per second could cause the fire to move into neighbouring districts.  "The wind is still a challenge and will become an even greater challenge if it increases. It's still burning heavily, and there is no fire control," said south-west police official Toralf Skarland.  Police said there had been no reports of casualties but warned people to avoid the area.  The Red Cross, which helped with the evacuation effort, told the BBC the blaze was close to farms, huts and small villages.  Fires were also burning around the town of Lyngdal in the neighbouring area, it said.  Forest fires have broken out in several parts of northern Europe this month amid hot temperatures.  Dozens of people were evacuated from their homes when a blaze broke out in southern Sweden on Tuesday, but by Wednesday morning it was under control.  In Germany, crews battled fires over the Easter weekend and Germany's weather service warned Germans on Wednesday to expect a drought this year at least as severe as in 2018 if the current dry weather continued.  "The starting conditions for vegetation in 2019 are in many areas of Germany clearly worse than last year," said agriculture meteorologist Udo Busch.  A huge wildfire broke out in Moray, Scotland this week, which officials said would "take days" to put out.  Two fires also spread across moorland in West Yorkshire.  The spate of forest fires in northern Europe contrasts with storms and torrential rain in the south.  A woman drowned when the car she was in was swept away by a flood in Tuscany on Tuesday, and a French tourist died in storms off Sardinia earlier this week.


bbc--2019-05-15--Mexico City pollution Residents urged to stay indoors

Mexico City pollution: Residents urged to stay indoors

Officials in Mexico City have declared an environmental emergency after air pollution in the Mexican capital reached levels potentially dangerous to human health.  They urged those at particular risk to stay indoors and restricted the number of cars which can be driven in the city on Wednesday.  Smoke from nearby forest fires has contributed to the spike in pollution.  The city has been wrapped in a smoky haze for days.  Mexican photographer Santiago Arau tweeted video taken from a drone showing the extent of the pollution.  Particulate matter measuring 2.5 micrometres or less, known as PM2.5, reached 158 micrograms per cubic metre of air at one measuring station on Tuesday morning, more than six times the World Health Organisation daily mean recommended limit.  PM2.5 particles are thought to be particularly damaging because they are so small, they can penetrate the deepest parts of the lungs.  More than 21 million people live in Mexico City's metropolitan area and it was once infamous for its poor air quality. Air pollution levels dropped in the late 1990s but have again been on the rise in recent years.  The city lies in a valley and when there is little wind, the air can quickly become stagnant.  Mexico City's environmental commission advised residents to avoid outdoor activities and Mexico's first division football league postponed a match between León and Club América, which was due to be played in the capital on Wednesday.  Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said she would consider cancelling school classes if the pollution got any worse. She said schools were already keeping their pupils indoors at break time.


bbc--2019-06-24--Germany crash Two Eurofighter jets collide near base

Germany crash: Two Eurofighter jets collide near base

Two German armed forces Eurofighter jets have collided and crashed in the Müritz area of north-eastern Germany.  Both pilots were seen to eject from their planes by a colleague in a third Eurofighter plane.  One of the pilots has been found alive and a search is going on for the other.  One of the Eurofighters went down in a forest while the other crashed near a village some 10km (6 miles) away, said the interior ministry in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.  The German air force said the mid-air collision happened as all three Eurofighter Typhoons were taking part in an air combat exercise. The third pilot reported seeing two parachutes.  The two planes were based at Laage near Rostock. Neither plane was carrying weapons.  Local media showed footage of the smoke from both planes after they had hit the ground and said the crashes had both started forest fires.  One of the pilots was found alive hanging from a tree by rescuers near the village of Nossentiner Hütte, reports said. Police warned that debris from the crash had been strewn over a large area.


bbc--2019-06-26--Europe heatwave Why are temperatures on the continent soaring

Europe heatwave: Why are temperatures on the continent soaring?

Countries across Europe are experiencing record-breaking heat and issuing health alerts, urging people to keep cool, as sweltering temperatures are expected to intensify across the continent.  The heatwave has already caused flash floods and forest fires, grounded planes and buckled train tracks and led to school closures and warnings over air quality.  France has set up temporary water fountains in built-up areas and is allowing public pools to open late into the night. In Germany, people are filling hot water bottles, placing them in freezers and then taking them to bed.  As the mercury continues to rise - with potentially deadly consequences - experts tell the BBC what is behind the heatwave.  Heatwaves occur across northern Europe when high atmospheric pressure draws up hot air from northern Africa, Portugal and Spain, raising temperatures and increasing humidity. In this instance, the exceptionally hot air has come from the Sahara.  Timothy Hewson, who leads a forecasting team at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), said clear skies meant the strong June sunshine was further increasing temperatures. He said dry soil conditions meant there was less evaporation, which ordinarily cools the ground.  Heatwaves are not uncommon, but according to weather experts they are being amplified by a rise in global temperatures and are likely to become more frequent - one of the more predictable impacts of our warming climate.  A climate specialist at the UK's Meteorological Office, Grahame Madge, told the BBC that, while weather variations occur naturally, the world was around one degree warmer than pre-industrial levels and, as a result, extreme weather was becoming more likely.  "Now when we get a heatwave, it is likely to be a degree or so more," he said. "They are still extreme events, but they are also becoming more frequent."  The highest recorded temperature in Europe - 48C (118.4F) - was measured in Athens in July 1977, but on average the 20 warmest years since records began have all been within the past 22 years. The years 2015-2018 make up the top four, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).  A scientific study into last year's Europe-wide heatwave by the World Weather Attribution group concluded that high temperatures in the region were made more likely by human activities that contributed to climate change.  If the current trend were to continue, heatwaves across Europe could occur as often as every other year by the 2040s, with the possibility that temperatures may rise by 3-5C by 2100, the report said.  There is no universally accepted definition of a heatwave, due to variations in climate conditions in different world regions. Typically though, they are defined by an unseasonably hot period - usually five degrees or more above the average daily maximum - that lasts at least three days.  Other factors considered by analysts, Mr Hewson said, included night-time temperatures, humidity and wind speed. Both humidity and low wind speeds can enhance a heatwave. The effects can be particularly extreme in large cities due to increased human activity and a mass of buildings, concrete and roads.  "In terms of the time of year and spatial pattern of warmth, the ongoing event in Europe is quite similar to the 2015 European heatwave," Mr Hewson said.  The most severely affected areas during that heatwave were southern and central Europe, but there were also temperature records set in Germany and Switzerland.  Higher temperatures can affect anyone, but dehydration, heat exhaustion and heatstroke can have deadly consequences for people who suffer from cardiac, kidney and respiratory diseases as well as the elderly and infants.  "Heatwaves can be dangerous because they reduce the capacity of the human body to regulate its own temperature, to keep it at safe levels," Mr Hewson said.  Vulnerable people may suffer particularly if overnight temperatures do not drop below 25C, said Mr Madge, the Met Office climate specialist.  Health professionals advise that anyone experiencing headaches, dizziness, loss of appetite, nausea, excessive sweating, cramps, fast breathing or intense thirst should try to find a way to cool off.  If a person's body temperature rises above 40C (104F), heat stroke can set in, which requires urgent medical help. Danger signs include sweat stopping and breathing difficulties. Heat stroke can lead to loss of consciousness and serious complications, including permanent damage to vital organs or even death.  After the 2003 heatwave, about 70,000 additional deaths were recorded compared with previous years, according to a scientific and medical study.  Nations with hotter climates, such as Australia and countries in North Africa and across the Middle East - where summer temperatures can often reach 50C - can still struggle with extreme weather.  "Their infrastructure might be able to cope with higher temperatures in general, but with anything away from the norm, everywhere struggles," Mr Madge said.  When asked how they keep cool in extreme heat, BBC colleagues living in Nigeria, Tanzania, Yemen and Brazil had the following advice for countries with more variable climates:


bbc--2019-06-26--European countries set new June heat records amid heatwave

Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic hit their highest ever recorded June temperatures on Wednesday - with more records anticipated to fall as the heat continues to rise in the coming days.  Some nations, including France and Switzerland, are expected to see levels above 40C (104F) on Thursday.  Meteorologists say exceptionally hot air blown in from northern Africa is to blame for the European heatwave.  French officials have issued stark warnings about the risk to life.  On Wednesday, their Minister for Solidarity and Health, Agnès Buzyn, defended the government against claims they are being alarmist about the conditions.  France was traumatised by a heatwave in 2003 which was blamed for 15,000 extra deaths.  Nearly all of country is now on orange alert - the second-highest warning level after red - with local authorities issuing advice on how to keep cool.  Spanish officials have also warned of a "significant risk" of forest fires in some areas.  Temperatures have been climbing in recent days - but are expected to get even hotter in places towards the end of the week.  On Wednesday, Coschen in Brandenburg peaked at 38.6C - a new German record for June.  Radzyn in Poland and Doksany in the Czech Republic also recorded new national highs, with temperatures hitting 38.2C and 38.9C respectively.  Parts of France and Switzerland also recorded their local all-time highest temperatures ever.  Even in the high-altitude Aps, temperatures topped 30C in places.  Meteorologists warn the heatwave's conditions will intensify over the coming days. In parts of northeastern Spain, it may reach 45C on Friday.  Because of the unusually warm weather, some French schools have delayed important exams and even closed to pupils altogether.  Several cities, including Paris and Lyon, have restricted traffic to try and reduce the effects of pollution during the heatwave.  While the UK will avoid the worst heat, parts of the country - including London - are expected to see temperatures top 30C on Saturday.  While extreme weather events like heatwaves occur naturally, experts say these will happen more often because of climate change.  Records going back to the late 19th Century show that the average temperature of the Earth's surface has increased by about one degree since industrialisation.  A climatology institute in Potsdam, Germany, says Europe's five hottest summers since 1500 have all been in the 21st Century.  Scientists are concerned that rapid human-induced warming has serious implications for the stability of the planet's climate.  What measures are you taking to cope with the heatwave? Share your stories. Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk  Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: