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The
consequences of failing to act when you have the opportunity, is that it
is too late when the roasting escalates. What you can hope for is that
the politicians who allowed the situation to go unchecked, are the ones
the public
roast first when the crops fail - and we are forced to consider other
sources of protein. In London,
around 41 homes were destroyed by fires, seen as being a sign of things
to come, a climate warming fueled Armageddon.
Le Monde with AFP August 2 2026
France's devastating fires now 'under control,' says PM
France has for weeks been battling wildfires after a series of deadly heatwaves that have dried up riverbeds and vegetation, in extreme weather events scientists have linked to human-made climate change.
The fires that have ravaged France are "today under control" Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said Saturday, August 1, more than a week after the country's largest wildfire since 1949 flared up.
"Overall, the fires are now under control in our country," he said in an interview with the weekly newspaper La Tribune Dimanche.
The largest wildfire erupted more than a week since the fire erupted in a pine forest near the southwestern city of Bordeaux. There, said Lecornu, "we have returned to a more stable situation," confirming earlier comments by Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.
France has for weeks been battling wildfires after a series of deadly heatwaves that have dried up riverbeds and vegetation, extreme weather events scientists have linked to human-made climate change.
In the Gironde region near the winemaking capital of Bordeaux, an inferno ripped through 42,000 hectares of pine forest along the Atlantic coastline – an area larger than the US city of Detroit. It also destroyed around 240 homes. Some local people think a brushwood-clearing machine accidentally started the blaze with a spark on Wednesday last week.
Sophie Brocas, the prefect of the southwestern Gironde region, remained cautious Saturday. "Fire fixed doesn't mean fire out," she warned, mentioning two "hot points" still giving cause for concern.
But most of the 224,000 people evacuated from the flames have been allowed to return to their homes, she said. The others, said Nuñez, would have to wait for the fire to be put out in the areas where it was still active.
Lecornu, in his interview, made it clear that if the situation changed, the authorities would take the appropriate action.
The wildfire near Bordeaux is the largest nationwide since a deadly forest fire in the same region in 1949, which scorched around 50,000 hectares. Lecornu encouraged people to go on holiday in the region as "a gesture of solidarity."
Take a look at how to fireproof
your home.
LE MONDE 30 JULY 2026 - Unprecedented drought hits central France: 'Nothing grows anymore, it has become a desert'
Only three of the area's 35 small streams monitored by the French Biodiversity Office are still flowing, levels that have not been seen since monitoring began in 2012.
The Ford Mini was still dripping as it sat under the shelter of the car wash in La Souterraine, in the Creuse administartive department in central France. Its owner looked on in surprise as agents from the French Biodiversity Office appeared in front of his wet vehicle – two inspectors in gray uniforms, reminding people that washing cars was forbidden. "I'm going to need your identification," said Grégory Rollion, the department's deputy head for the public agency. The driver had been warned: A sign above the payment terminal explained the rules in effect.
"Drought restrictions," the sign read in bold red capital letters. The Creuse has been under emergency measures since late June. "You've got to see that sign!" insisted the driver, a Paris-region resident on vacation, who had returned to France after a long stay abroad. But why, when the parched landscapes all around clearly show the lack of water, would he want to wash his car? "It's dirty. It's a classic car, I don't want it to get ruined," the man in his 40s said, facing a potential fine of up to €1,500.
FRANCE 24 - 3 AUGUST 2026
Europe's record-breaking heat sparks wildfires, drought in France, Greece and the UK
Europe
Europe's record-breaking hot and dry summer continues to take its toll on France and Greece, where firefighters fought to contain major blazes, while the UK recorded its driest July in nearly two centuries. Europe is Earth’s fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service.
A record-breaking hot and dry summer tightened its grip on Europe Monday, as water-dropping planes swooped over a major wildfire in Greece, firefighters in France sought to stabilize a blaze in Provence, and much of the UK recorded its driest July in nearly two centuries.
Wildfires west of Athens jumped containment lines, a day after a midair collision between two helicopters killed two crew members.
A Greek and a Danish national died and two others were hospitalised in the helicopter collision. All four were private operators chartered by the Greek firefighting service.
In France, firefighters in the region around Bordeaux guarded against potential flare-ups inside a still-burning scar four times the size of Paris.
A prolonged heat wave and lack of rainfall led to the driest July in England and Wales in nearly 200 years of recordkeeping, according to provisional statistics, the UK’s weather service said Monday.
All of Wales and more than half of England are officially in drought, the Met Office said. The dry spell was accompanied by sweltering temperatures across much of the UK, following heat waves in May and June.
Wales tied its record for its warmest mean temperature for July while England and the UK recorded their second-warmest July.
Strong winds returned to southern Greece late Monday, pushing flames into mountain home clusters, destroying farms and property, and closing a highway.
Areas surrounding Athens remain at high risk through the week with temperatures set to rise further. More than 1,000 people have been evacuated from around the seaside resort of Porto Germeno and other areas west of the capital – including more than 250 rescued by boats from beaches in the area.
“This is a difficult fire that has troubled us,” Fire Service spokesman Yiannis Artopios said, adding that 12 water-dropping planes and 11 helicopters were operating in the area Monday.
The blaze was blamed on a faulty power line from a wind farm and led to the arrests of two contractors on charges of negligent arson.
Despite improved detection methods and expanded cooperation among European Union members, Greece and other countries along Europe's Mediterranean coast suffer devastating wildfires every summer as spells of heat wave temperatures grow longer.
Europe is Earth’s fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service. Rising temperatures and prolonged drought leave vegetation drier and more combustible, allowing fires to spread faster and burn more intensely.
In France, thousands of evacuees were allowed to return home or to holiday accommodation Monday after a massive wildfire remained contained. More than 224,000 people had fled in what officials said was the country’s largest civilian evacuation outside wartime.
The wildfire burned about 420 square kilometres (162 square miles), making it France’s largest wildfire on record. Monday's return includes Cap Ferret peninsula, a tourist hot spot along the Atlantic coast, and Le Porge, the municipality hardest hit by the fire, where 183 homes were destroyed. Campsites remain closed.
A second wildfire in Provence did not flare up overnight, but was still not contained Monday as stronger winds were expected, firefighters and authorities said. About 1,500 firefighters, supported by water-dropping helicopters, continued reinforcing fire lines along the blaze that tore through about 18 square kilometres (7 square miles).
The European Forest Fire Information System said the risk of wildfire remains high across parts of the continent through August 5, including in traditionally cooler northern countries.
Firefighters in the Netherlands were battling a large blaze Monday in a forest in the southern province of Limburg, authorities said, as the country sweltered through another day of hot, dry summer weather. The national railway operator halted trains between two towns in the area due to the fire.
The Dutch air force sent two Chinook helicopters equipped with large water containers to help firefighters tackle the blaze in the Netherlands. Media reported that a campsite in the area was evacuated due to poor air quality caused by a large plume of smoke.
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.
LINKS
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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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