OPORTO - HEATWAVE FIRES JULY 2022

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In Portugal, more than 1,000 firefighters continued to battle 30 forest blazes on Monday. Last week the northern town of Pinhão recorded 47C, the highest July temperature ever in mainland Portugal.

In what many of the public will see as a sign from above, Armageddon, 'the beginning of the end,' 41 houses went up in smoke in London on the 19th of July 2022 with another 19 elsewhere in the UK. It's not as if politicians did not know about the consequences of failing to act from at least 30 years ago. Their sloth is leading us to extinction, with the 1.5 degrees Celsius target now impossible to achieve.

London and Canada had a similar experience in July 2021, in Lytton, British Columbia.

So brace yourselves. This is just the beginning. Unless, policies change tomorrow - and that is not going to happen with the so-called United Nations unable to agree on anything - the epitome of a dysfunctional do-good organization, bereft of teeth. All they can do is give the G20s conscience a gentle suck. They used get more of a kicking from dear old Greta Thunberg, when she was young enough to make a difference.

The problem is those in power have too much invested in coal, gas and oil, for rapid change. That's like asking you to hand over your wallet and the codes to your bank accounts. It's not going to happen. Politicians are greedy for money and power.

Council's like Wealden are the same, leading us down the path to damnation, as they refuse to build sustainable housing, in favour of expensive palaces, allowing to charge more Tax. Yup, and what is that for? Their retirement fund of course - it's all about the money. Will these climate geriatrics have anything to retire to! They still don't get it. It is not about growth, it is about reductions to 1990 levels. They really are a bunch of fossil fools. You cannot have growth, if you have already exceeded the natural limits of the planet.

We should be thinking about re-wilding and planting trees. Wealden want exactly the opposite. Staggering stupidity comes from fat wallets, that appear to make you blind, deaf & dumb.

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Jeremy Clarkson has been promoting petrol and diesel vehicles for years. Unapologetically. He still does not seem to get it. But then he has raked in the cash from helping to sell fast fossil fueled vehicles over many years. With such incentives, it is no wonder his moral compass is bewildering to many on twitter, etc. Tweet, tweet! He even had a go at Greta Thunberg. That is how far climate deniers will go for their jollies.

FINANCIAL TIMES 17 JULY 2022 - CLIMATE CHANGE SHOVED IN OUR FACE - EUROPE WRESTLES WITH HEATWAVE AND FOREST FIRES

Five countries declare states of emergency or issue red alerts as temperatures break records across northern Europe

A deadly heatwave spreading across Europe is breaking temperature records, fuelling wildfires, and disrupting transportation, as the continent faces the impact of climate change.

In France, Brest — on the normally cool Atlantic coast — saw the temperature reach a record 39.3C in the afternoon, 18C above normal and breaking the 1949 record of 35.2C, while Nantes, also in Brittany, recorded 42C. Elsewhere in the west of the country the heat exceeded or approached the record levels of the 2019 heatwave. Meanwhile London sizzled at 37.4C.

Temperatures in the UK are forecast to climb even higher on Tuesday, as an unusual atmospheric pattern carries hot air from southern Europe further north.

At least five European countries have declared states of emergency or issued red alerts, and governments are racing to care for tens of thousands of people who have been displaced by the fires.


“Climate change kills people, our ecosystem and what is most precious to us,” Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said on Monday during a visit to an area hit by fires. Wildfires are also raging in France, Portugal and Greece, fuelled by long spells of hot weather.

Just a year after flooding killed more than 200 people in Germany and Belgium, this week’s record-breaking heatwave is bringing home the urgency of climate change, including in some countries that have been relatively sheltered from it until now.

“It is so extreme, so incredible,” said Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, referring to the heatwave. “There are recording-breaking events throughout Europe at this stage,” he added, pointing to the high temperatures in northern Europe in particular.

The heat disaster comes as Europe is also in the grip of an energy crisis, with several countries planning to burn more coal this winter, which will increase greenhouse gas emissions.

“We are almost reaching a point where Mother Earth is going to shed humanity as an old skin, rid itself of all of us,” Frans Timmermans, the EU’s top climate official, said. Calling for more action to stop the climate crisis he added: “This is not about saving the planet. It is about saving humanity.”

In France, more than 16,000 people — campers, other holidaymakers and residents — have been evacuated to protect them from two big pine forest fires sweeping through the countryside of south-west France near Bordeaux, according to the French government.

“We are not just glimpsing climate change, it’s being shoved in our faces,” said Jean-Luc Gleyze, president of the Gironde département around Bordeaux. He told the French newspaper Le Monde that the big fire at Landiras south of the city was “a monster”.

In the UK, trains were severely disrupted due to the risk of rails buckling in the heat, and some schools closed early due to heating concerns. Wales sent a new temperature record of 37.1C, and temperatures in some parts of England were forecast to reach 41C on Tuesday.

In Spain, where temperatures topped 45C last week, dozens of wildfires, which have forced thousands to evacuate their homes, continued to burn on Monday.

The fires have killed two people and destroyed more than 70,000 hectares of forest across Spain, almost double the annual average for the past decade.

Health authorities in both Iberian countries have attributed several hundred deaths above the expected number based on previous years to the heatwave — about 360 in Spain and 240 in Portugal during the first half of July.

Croatia was also affected this past week with a major wildfire erupting near the town of Zaton, close to the holiday centre Zadar. The heatwave is expected to rise in the second half of the week across the Balkans, making further fires likely.

Kai Kornhuber, research scientist at Columbia University, said that Europe is becoming a heatwave “hotspot”, with such abnormally hot weather episodes increasing three to four times faster than at other mid-latitudes.

“Western Europe is seeing its third intense heatwave this summer, and it is still early [in the summer],” he said. The changing behaviour of the jet stream, which governs the weather in Europe, is contributing to the increase in heatwaves.

“Breaking records is the new normal,” Kornhuber added, saying that temperatures will keep rising as long as greenhouse gas emissions continue. “In 10 years or so, this will definitely be superseded by another temperature record.”

We are not sure the world will have to wait that long, as temperature rises are almost exponential, from the cumulative effects of population growth and economic expansion. All of which need to burn fuel. Coal being the choice for Australia, China and India. Even Japan is building more coal power stations. And we thought they were intelligent.

HEATWAVES A TO Z

Australia

Barcelona & Madrid, Spain

Bordeaux & Brest France

Brazil & Amazon rainforest
British Columbia on the 1st of July 2021

China, Beijing

India, Delhi

London had a similar experience in July 2022

Porto, Portugal

Tokyo & Osaka, Japan June 2022

USA

FOREST FIRE A TO Z

Amazonian

Arctic

Asia

Australian

Bolivian

Brazilian

British Columbian

Canadian - Saskatchewan

Chilean

Croatian

Ecuador

Europe heat wave 17 July 2022

France

Greece

Japanese

Malaysian

Mongolian

Portugal

Russian

Spain

Sweden

USA - California, Yosemite

       - Montana

       - Georgia

       - Sacramento

UK   - Saddleworth Moor

       - Moray

       - Dartmoor

WOOD IS GOOD x 10 PLEASE

Timber grown for wood is only good if part of a replanting scheme, with at least 2 trees planted for every one felled, though we would suggest up to 10 trees should be planted to offset the loss of carbon absorption during growth.

We need to plant more trees - a whole lot more trees, not clear them, and especially not waste timber that is a vital renewable resource for zero carbon house building. Forest fires that cause deforestation are raising the temperature of Planet Earth and there is no Planet B.

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LINKS & REFERENCE

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/jeremy-clarkson-says-brutal-uk-heatwave-killed-his-pig-after-initially-playing-down-danger/ar-AAZMZnL

https://www.ft.com/content/6e52be5f-4091-4b38-8156-9e3e7f4e4bf3

SOIL EROSION - The more land that we lose to grow crops the greater the food security issue. As the ice caps melt, desertification spreads to make Earth more uninhabitable.

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