Dry, windy conditions have fueled fires across California and thousands have been ordered to evacuate as firefighters battle the blazes
Continue reading...Category Archives: Wildfires
California: wind-driven Kincade wildfire forces evacuations in north of state – video
A wind-driven wildfire has forced evacuations north of San Francisco in Sonoma County. The blaze near Geyserville had grown to 15 sq miles (39 sq km) by early Thursday, according to the state firefighting agency Cal Fire. Winds around the county's highest areas were blowing at speeds of up to 70mph, and elsewhere in the region between 30mph and 50mph, the National Weather Service said
Continue reading...Police order evacuations as fast-moving wildfire spreads near San Francisco
Cal Fire said flames consumed about 60 acres in little more than two hours in the hills of a Bay Area community, Sanders Ranch
Police ordered evacuations early on Thursday as a fast-moving wildfire spread in the hills of a San Francisco Bay Area community.
The flames surged despite the area being part of a large parcel of northern California where more than 1.5 million people have had their power deliberately cut off to try to prevent the kind of blazes that have devastated parts of the state in recent years.
Continue reading...Indonesian forest fires burn causing toxic haze across south-east Asia – in pictures
Forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan have been spewing toxic haze across south-east Asia, forcing the closure of schools and airports, and prompting Indonesian authorities to deploy thousands of firefighters to tackle them. There has been an increase in reports of respiratory illnesses
• Red skies cover parts of Indonesia as rainforest fire haze crisis worsens – video
Continue reading...Bankrupt California utility blamed for deadly wildfires agrees to $11bn payout
PG&E to pay insurers of claimants from two years of blazes, including Paradise fire that left 86 dead, in tentative deal
A utility company with a history of sparking wildfires has agreed to pay $11bn to a group of insurance companies representing claimants from deadly northern California wildfires in 2017 and 2018.
The tentative agreement includes insurance claims from the town of Paradise, where 86 died last November, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) said in a statement Friday.
Continue reading...World ‘gravely’ unprepared for effects of climate crisis – report
Trillions of dollars needed to avoid ‘climate apartheid’ but this is less than cost of inaction
The world’s readiness for the inevitable effects of the climate crisis is “gravely insufficient”, according to a report from global leaders.
This lack of preparedness will result in poverty, water shortages and levels of migration soaring, with an “irrefutable toll on human life”, the report warns.
Continue reading...Peregian homes destroyed after ferocious bushfire rips through Sunshine Coast community
Firefighters fear significant property losses, with scores of blazes still burning in Queensland and NSW
• Mass evacuations as bushfires threaten more homes – live updates
Hundreds of people are holed up in evacuation centres on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast as crews wait to see how many homes have been lost to a ferocious fire, while firefighters in New South Wales are still battling out-of-control fires near the border.
There are fears of significant property losses, with a destructive blaze still burning out of control at Peregian Beach and Peregian Breeze Estate, south of Noosa.
Continue reading...Malaysia complains of smog from Indonesian forest fires
Residents inhaling smoke from peat and trees burned hundreds of miles away
An increase in Indonesian forest fires – the sharpest rise since 2015 – has infuriated neighbouring Malaysia, where residents are inhaling smoke from peat and trees burned hundreds of miles away.
More than 14 megatonnes of carbon dioxide were discharged from the blazes on 5 September, more than triple the average on this day over the previous 15 years, according to satellite data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.
Continue reading...Brazil: fears for isolated Amazon tribes as fires erupt on protected reserves
- Fires broke out in 131 indigenous reserves from 15-20 August
- Campaigners say indigenous territories easy targets for loggers
Fires have been reported in protected indigenous reserves of the Brazilian Amazon, raising fears that loggers and land grabbers have targeted these remote areas during the dramatic surge in blazes across the world’s biggest rainforest.
Blazes have been seen on the Araribóia indigenous reserve in Maranhão state – a heavily deforested reserve on the Amazon’s eastern fringes, which is home to about 80 people from an isolated group of Awá indigenous people, described by the NGO Survival International as the world’s most endangered tribe.
Continue reading...‘Worst of wildfires still to come’ despite Brazil claiming crisis is under control
Forestry expert warns annual burning season had yet to fully play out and calls for urgent steps to reduce potential damage
The fires raging in the Brazilian Amazon are likely to intensify over the coming weeks, a leading environmental expert has warned, despite government claims the situation had been controlled.
Related: Amazon fires: what is happening and is there anything we can do?
Continue reading...Jair Bolsonaro demands Macron withdraw ‘insults’ over Amazon fires
Brazilian and French presidents continue feud over G7 aid package for wildfires raging in Amazon rainforest
Brazil’s far-right president and his backers have escalated their row over the Amazon with Emmanuel Macron, attacking the French president’s “lamentable colonialist stance” as fires continued to rage in the world’s biggest rainforest.
As Brazil said it would reject a $20m (£16m) G7 contribution to fight the fires, Jair Bolsonaro spurned Macron’s criticism of his environmental record and flaunted Donald Trump’s support for his far-right administration.
Continue reading...Amazon rainforest fires: Brazil to reject $20m pledged by G7
Senior official says funds should be spent on reforesting Europe and not on ‘colonialist practices’
A senior Brazilian official has told Emmanuel Macron to take care of “his home and his colonies” as Brazil rejected an offer from G7 countries of $20m (£16m) to help fight fires in the Amazon.
“We appreciate [the offer], but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe,” Onyx Lorenzoni, the chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro, told the G1 news website.
Continue reading...Amazon rainforest fires: an environmental catastrophe – in pictures
Fires are raging across the world’s largest tropical rainforest as farmers, land-grabbers and loggers torch trees and clear land for crops or grazing. According to Brazil’s National Institute of Space Research, the number of fires detected by satellite in the Amazon region this month is the highest since 2010. Bowing to international pressure and a global outcry over the destruction of a vital resource in the fight against climate change, president Jair Bolsonaro authorised the deployment of Brazil’s armed forces to help combat blazes, with warplane dumping water on burning tracts of Amazon. Critics say the large number of fires this year has been stoked by Bolsonaro’s encouragement of farmers, loggers and ranchers to speed up efforts to strip away forest
Continue reading...Wildfire in Gran Canaria forces thousands to evacuate – video
About 8,000 people have been evacuated from their homes in Gran Canaria as firefighters battle a wildfire. The blaze, which began on Saturday near the town of Tejeda, is advancing on several fronts, propelled by high temperatures, strong winds and low humidity. Sixteen planes and helicopters as well as more than 700 firefighters are working to contain flames of up to 50 metres
Continue reading...Arctic wildfires spew soot and smoke cloud bigger than EU
Plume from unprecedented blazes forecast to reach Alaska as fires rage for third month
A cloud of smoke and soot bigger than the European Union is billowing across Siberia as wildfires in the Arctic Circle rage into an unprecedented third month.
The normally frozen region, which is a crucial part of the planet’s cooling system, is spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and worsening the manmade climate disruption that created the tinderbox conditions.
Continue reading...Wildfire rages through forest in Spain’s Canary Islands – video
A huge fire broke out on the holiday island of Gran Canaria on Saturday. Hundreds of people were evacuated as the flames burned though 900 hectares of forest
Continue reading...Record heatwave ‘made much more likely’ by human impact on climate
Scientists say July at least equalled and may have beaten hottest month on record
The record-breaking heatwave that roasted Europe last month was a one-in-a-thousand-year event made up to 100 times more likely by human-driven climate change, scientists have calculated.
Around the globe, July at least equalled and may have surpassed the hottest month on record, according to data from the World Meteorological Organization. This followed the warmest June on record.
Continue reading...‘Unprecedented’: more than 100 Arctic wildfires burn in worst ever season
Huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia and Alaska are producing plumes of smoke that can be seen from space
The Arctic is suffering its worst wildfire season on record, with huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia and Alaska producing plumes of smoke that can be seen from space.
The Arctic region has recorded its hottest June ever. Since the start of that month, more than 100 wildfires have burned in the Arctic circle. In Russia, 11 of 49 regions are experiencing wildfires.
Continue reading...Aerial footage shows aftermath of wildfires in Spain – video
Firefighters in Catalonia battled one of the biggest wildfires in 20 years on Friday as temperatures in parts of Spain were expected to hit a new June record of 43C. With Europe in the grip of an extreme heatwave, the fires burned across 6,500 hectares of land. Footage from a helicopter shows the extent of the damage caused
Spain fights huge forest fire as European heatwave intensifies
Blaze fanned by strong winds and high temperatures could burn through 20,000 hectares
More than 500 firefighters and soldiers are working to bring a huge forest fire under control in north-eastern Spain as the early summer heatwave intensifies across Europe.
The fire, in the Catalan province of Tarragona, has been fanned by strong winds and high temperatures and has so far burned across 5,000 hectares (12,355 acres) of land.
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