Brussels-Sana
The European Union's Joint Research Center reported today that fires across Europe have devoured large areas of forest this summer, the second largest area on record, even though the fire season is in the middle of it.
Reuters quoted the center as saying that dozens of European countries have suffered from major fires this year, forcing thousands of people to evacuate their areas and destroying homes and workplaces, while countries such as Italy, Spain and France are still facing the dangers of severe fires.
Data from the Joint Research Center showed that forest fires have burned more than 1,484,000 acres in the European Union countries this year so far, and this is the second largest total area ever since 2006 when the data recording process began.
In turn, Victor Risco de Dios, professor of forest engineering at the Spanish University of Lleida, said that the large fires that hit France and Portugal in early July were unusual and showed how climate change caused the fire season to start earlier and last longer.
Southern European countries such as Portugal and Greece see fires for most of the summer, but high temperatures are driving the risk of severe forest fires further north. Germany, Slovenia and the Czech Republic are among the countries that have seen wildfires erupt this season.
Scientists agree that heat waves, wildfires and other climate impacts will get significantly worse without sharp cuts in the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change.
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