First modification:
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report called on governments to rethink spending on forest fires, recommending that they allocate 45% of their budget to prevention and preparedness, 34% to fighting fires and 20% to recovery.
Climate change and abrupt land use patterns mean that in the coming decades there will be more forest fires in large parts of the world, with an estimated increase of 30% by 2050 and more than 50% by the end of the century, according to a United Nations report published this Wednesday, February 23.
According to the United Nations Environment Program and the environmental communication group GRID-Arendal, the flash fires will cause problems that governments are not prepared to deal with such as pollution spikes from unhealthy smoke.
A whole chain that translates into challenges to be solved by world leaders: atmospheric pollution that leads to health problems, mainly for the respiratory system; threat of disappearance of trees that produce moisture and lower temperatures in summer and possible job losses for people who live near them.
Likewise, the study indicates that the western United States, the north of Siberia, the center of India and the east of Australia, already suffer more fires and warns that the areas that were previously considered safe from the monumental flames “no longer they will be immune”, including low-temperature territories such as the Arctic.
The tropical forests of Indonesia and the southern Amazon of South America are also susceptible to an increase in forest fires, experts point out.
“Uncontrollable and devastating bushfires are becoming an expected part of seasonal calendars in many parts of the world,” said Andrew Sullivan of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia, one of the report’s authors.
Why are wildfires on the rise?
The size and destructiveness of forest fires – whether started on purpose, by accident or by natural phenomena – largely depends on three factors: weather conditions, the amount of fuel available to burn, and where they burn. produces the fire.
UNEP also describes a “cycle of worsening” which repeats itself endlessly: the consequences of advanced climate change bring with it more drought and higher temperatures, which in turn facilitate the start and spread of fires; the large flares and plumes of smoke are responsible for releasing carbon into the atmosphere, which ends up contributing to relentless climate change.
“Global warming is turning landscapes into tinderboxes, while more extreme weather means stronger, hotter, drier winds to fan the flames,” the report warns.
Another place where the threat of fire is expected to increase is in tropical forests. Some of them could be very harmful because the production of flames in these ecosystems is not “something natural” and they cause many difficulties for their recovery.
“It’s not normal for fires to break out in tropical rainforests,” says Glynis Humphrey, a plant conservation specialist at the University of Cape Town and author of the report.
How to distribute resources to fight fires?
For the UN researchers, some countries continue to spend too much time and money fighting fires and not enough on preventing them.
“In many regions of the world, most resources are spent on response, focused on the short term,” said Paulo Fernandes, author of the UNEP report and fire scientist at the University of Trás-os-Montes y Alto. Douro in Portugal.
According to the report, in the United States alone the economic burden of wildfires amounts to 347,000 million dollars annually, which translates into money for the damages and losses caused by the flames, up to the costly support of the entire network of firefighters that responds. to emergencies.
The fires that have hit the Argentine province of Corrientes since December have taken a huge toll, killing wildlife in the Iberá National Park, charring pastures and livestock, and decimating crops such as yerba mate, fruit and rice. Losses have already exceeded 234 million dollars, according to the Argentine Rural Society.
“It affects people’s jobs and people’s finances,” Humphrey said. “It is integral that fire is in the same category of disaster management as floods and droughts. It is absolutely essential,” she added.
Fighting the felling of trees, deforestation and promoting the care of natural resources is presented as one of the main long-term solutions to reduce the implacable threats that forest fires represent for humanity.
With AP and Reuters
First modification:
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report called on governments to rethink spending on forest fires, recommending that they allocate 45% of their budget to prevention and preparedness, 34% to fighting fires and 20% to recovery.
Climate change and abrupt land use patterns mean that in the coming decades there will be more forest fires in large parts of the world, with an estimated increase of 30% by 2050 and more than 50% by the end of the century, according to a United Nations report published this Wednesday, February 23.
According to the United Nations Environment Program and the environmental communication group GRID-Arendal, the flash fires will cause problems that governments are not prepared to deal with such as pollution spikes from unhealthy smoke.
A whole chain that translates into challenges to be solved by world leaders: atmospheric pollution that leads to health problems, mainly for the respiratory system; threat of disappearance of trees that produce moisture and lower temperatures in summer and possible job losses for people who live near them.
Likewise, the study indicates that the western United States, the north of Siberia, the center of India and the east of Australia, already suffer more fires and warns that the areas that were previously considered safe from the monumental flames “no longer they will be immune”, including low-temperature territories such as the Arctic.
The tropical forests of Indonesia and the southern Amazon of South America are also susceptible to an increase in forest fires, experts point out.
“Uncontrollable and devastating bushfires are becoming an expected part of seasonal calendars in many parts of the world,” said Andrew Sullivan of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia, one of the report’s authors.
Why are wildfires on the rise?
The size and destructiveness of forest fires – whether started on purpose, by accident or by natural phenomena – largely depends on three factors: weather conditions, the amount of fuel available to burn, and where they burn. produces the fire.
UNEP also describes a “cycle of worsening” which repeats itself endlessly: the consequences of advanced climate change bring with it more drought and higher temperatures, which in turn facilitate the start and spread of fires; the large flares and plumes of smoke are responsible for releasing carbon into the atmosphere, which ends up contributing to relentless climate change.
“Global warming is turning landscapes into tinderboxes, while more extreme weather means stronger, hotter, drier winds to fan the flames,” the report warns.
Another place where the threat of fire is expected to increase is in tropical forests. Some of them could be very harmful because the production of flames in these ecosystems is not “something natural” and they cause many difficulties for their recovery.
“It’s not normal for fires to break out in tropical rainforests,” says Glynis Humphrey, a plant conservation specialist at the University of Cape Town and author of the report.
How to distribute resources to fight fires?
For the UN researchers, some countries continue to spend too much time and money fighting fires and not enough on preventing them.
“In many regions of the world, most resources are spent on response, focused on the short term,” said Paulo Fernandes, author of the UNEP report and fire scientist at the University of Trás-os-Montes y Alto. Douro in Portugal.
According to the report, in the United States alone the economic burden of wildfires amounts to 347,000 million dollars annually, which translates into money for the damages and losses caused by the flames, up to the costly support of the entire network of firefighters that responds. to emergencies.
The fires that have hit the Argentine province of Corrientes since December have taken a huge toll, killing wildlife in the Iberá National Park, charring pastures and livestock, and decimating crops such as yerba mate, fruit and rice. Losses have already exceeded 234 million dollars, according to the Argentine Rural Society.
“It affects people’s jobs and people’s finances,” Humphrey said. “It is integral that fire is in the same category of disaster management as floods and droughts. It is absolutely essential,” she added.
Fighting the felling of trees, deforestation and promoting the care of natural resources is presented as one of the main long-term solutions to reduce the implacable threats that forest fires represent for humanity.
With AP and Reuters
First modification:
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report called on governments to rethink spending on forest fires, recommending that they allocate 45% of their budget to prevention and preparedness, 34% to fighting fires and 20% to recovery.
Climate change and abrupt land use patterns mean that in the coming decades there will be more forest fires in large parts of the world, with an estimated increase of 30% by 2050 and more than 50% by the end of the century, according to a United Nations report published this Wednesday, February 23.
According to the United Nations Environment Program and the environmental communication group GRID-Arendal, the flash fires will cause problems that governments are not prepared to deal with such as pollution spikes from unhealthy smoke.
A whole chain that translates into challenges to be solved by world leaders: atmospheric pollution that leads to health problems, mainly for the respiratory system; threat of disappearance of trees that produce moisture and lower temperatures in summer and possible job losses for people who live near them.
Likewise, the study indicates that the western United States, the north of Siberia, the center of India and the east of Australia, already suffer more fires and warns that the areas that were previously considered safe from the monumental flames “no longer they will be immune”, including low-temperature territories such as the Arctic.
The tropical forests of Indonesia and the southern Amazon of South America are also susceptible to an increase in forest fires, experts point out.
“Uncontrollable and devastating bushfires are becoming an expected part of seasonal calendars in many parts of the world,” said Andrew Sullivan of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia, one of the report’s authors.
Why are wildfires on the rise?
The size and destructiveness of forest fires – whether started on purpose, by accident or by natural phenomena – largely depends on three factors: weather conditions, the amount of fuel available to burn, and where they burn. produces the fire.
UNEP also describes a “cycle of worsening” which repeats itself endlessly: the consequences of advanced climate change bring with it more drought and higher temperatures, which in turn facilitate the start and spread of fires; the large flares and plumes of smoke are responsible for releasing carbon into the atmosphere, which ends up contributing to relentless climate change.
“Global warming is turning landscapes into tinderboxes, while more extreme weather means stronger, hotter, drier winds to fan the flames,” the report warns.
Another place where the threat of fire is expected to increase is in tropical forests. Some of them could be very harmful because the production of flames in these ecosystems is not “something natural” and they cause many difficulties for their recovery.
“It’s not normal for fires to break out in tropical rainforests,” says Glynis Humphrey, a plant conservation specialist at the University of Cape Town and author of the report.
How to distribute resources to fight fires?
For the UN researchers, some countries continue to spend too much time and money fighting fires and not enough on preventing them.
“In many regions of the world, most resources are spent on response, focused on the short term,” said Paulo Fernandes, author of the UNEP report and fire scientist at the University of Trás-os-Montes y Alto. Douro in Portugal.
According to the report, in the United States alone the economic burden of wildfires amounts to 347,000 million dollars annually, which translates into money for the damages and losses caused by the flames, up to the costly support of the entire network of firefighters that responds. to emergencies.
The fires that have hit the Argentine province of Corrientes since December have taken a huge toll, killing wildlife in the Iberá National Park, charring pastures and livestock, and decimating crops such as yerba mate, fruit and rice. Losses have already exceeded 234 million dollars, according to the Argentine Rural Society.
“It affects people’s jobs and people’s finances,” Humphrey said. “It is integral that fire is in the same category of disaster management as floods and droughts. It is absolutely essential,” she added.
Fighting the felling of trees, deforestation and promoting the care of natural resources is presented as one of the main long-term solutions to reduce the implacable threats that forest fires represent for humanity.
With AP and Reuters
First modification:
The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report called on governments to rethink spending on forest fires, recommending that they allocate 45% of their budget to prevention and preparedness, 34% to fighting fires and 20% to recovery.
Climate change and abrupt land use patterns mean that in the coming decades there will be more forest fires in large parts of the world, with an estimated increase of 30% by 2050 and more than 50% by the end of the century, according to a United Nations report published this Wednesday, February 23.
According to the United Nations Environment Program and the environmental communication group GRID-Arendal, the flash fires will cause problems that governments are not prepared to deal with such as pollution spikes from unhealthy smoke.
A whole chain that translates into challenges to be solved by world leaders: atmospheric pollution that leads to health problems, mainly for the respiratory system; threat of disappearance of trees that produce moisture and lower temperatures in summer and possible job losses for people who live near them.
Likewise, the study indicates that the western United States, the north of Siberia, the center of India and the east of Australia, already suffer more fires and warns that the areas that were previously considered safe from the monumental flames “no longer they will be immune”, including low-temperature territories such as the Arctic.
The tropical forests of Indonesia and the southern Amazon of South America are also susceptible to an increase in forest fires, experts point out.
“Uncontrollable and devastating bushfires are becoming an expected part of seasonal calendars in many parts of the world,” said Andrew Sullivan of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Australia, one of the report’s authors.
Why are wildfires on the rise?
The size and destructiveness of forest fires – whether started on purpose, by accident or by natural phenomena – largely depends on three factors: weather conditions, the amount of fuel available to burn, and where they burn. produces the fire.
UNEP also describes a “cycle of worsening” which repeats itself endlessly: the consequences of advanced climate change bring with it more drought and higher temperatures, which in turn facilitate the start and spread of fires; the large flares and plumes of smoke are responsible for releasing carbon into the atmosphere, which ends up contributing to relentless climate change.
“Global warming is turning landscapes into tinderboxes, while more extreme weather means stronger, hotter, drier winds to fan the flames,” the report warns.
Another place where the threat of fire is expected to increase is in tropical forests. Some of them could be very harmful because the production of flames in these ecosystems is not “something natural” and they cause many difficulties for their recovery.
“It’s not normal for fires to break out in tropical rainforests,” says Glynis Humphrey, a plant conservation specialist at the University of Cape Town and author of the report.
How to distribute resources to fight fires?
For the UN researchers, some countries continue to spend too much time and money fighting fires and not enough on preventing them.
“In many regions of the world, most resources are spent on response, focused on the short term,” said Paulo Fernandes, author of the UNEP report and fire scientist at the University of Trás-os-Montes y Alto. Douro in Portugal.
According to the report, in the United States alone the economic burden of wildfires amounts to 347,000 million dollars annually, which translates into money for the damages and losses caused by the flames, up to the costly support of the entire network of firefighters that responds. to emergencies.
The fires that have hit the Argentine province of Corrientes since December have taken a huge toll, killing wildlife in the Iberá National Park, charring pastures and livestock, and decimating crops such as yerba mate, fruit and rice. Losses have already exceeded 234 million dollars, according to the Argentine Rural Society.
“It affects people’s jobs and people’s finances,” Humphrey said. “It is integral that fire is in the same category of disaster management as floods and droughts. It is absolutely essential,” she added.
Fighting the felling of trees, deforestation and promoting the care of natural resources is presented as one of the main long-term solutions to reduce the implacable threats that forest fires represent for humanity.
With AP and Reuters